how do i pull apart my hub from my rotor

aquaholic33 · Dec 5, 2007

My rotors are shot and need replacing. How do i seperate the rotor from the hub? do the lug screws just punch out if i hit them with a hammer?

Roadkill · Dec 5, 2007

They will punch out with a hammer, but......

If you have 4 wheel ABS, you will have to be carefull of the tone ring that is pressed onto the back side of the hub. The ideal way to separate them is with a press but a hammer will work also. When you go to put them back together, make sure the mating surface between the rotor and hub is completely clean and free of rust. You need an absolutely smooth surface between them to make sure there is no run-out (wobble) to the rotors after they are back together.

As with disasembly, the ideal way to put them back together is with a press, but if you don't have one, you can draw the studs back through with nuts and some sort of spacer. Just take your time and make sure to draw them all down evenly.

Broncobill78 · Dec 5, 2007

aquaholic33 said:
My rotors are shot and need replacing. How do i seperate the rotor from the hub? do the lug screws just punch out if i hit them with a hammer?

Considering the work involved & the tools required you might want to consider just picking up a replacement from the junkyard. They'll have plenty with enough meat to be turned a few times. That's what I usually do.

Tennessee Jed · Dec 5, 2007

On later models 1993 and up with speed sensor ring you have to pry/drive off that sprocket shaped ring carefully as it is fragile. Use a large punch or dead blow to strike the lug bolt without damaging the threads as you drive it out the back side of the rotor. At least that is how I did mine.

I wish so much that Ford had designed it to come off the front side like some other vehicles so you didn't have to take the bearings and lockers off every time.

I wonder if anyone makes an aftermarket hub assembly with longer lug bolts and an offset to make it fit on the front side?

aquaholic33 · Dec 5, 2007

Tennessee Jed said:
On later models 1993 and up with speed sensor ring you have to pry/drive off that sprocket shaped ring carefully as it is fragile. Use a large punch or dead blow to strike the lug bolt without damaging the threads as you drive it out the back side of the rotor. At least that is how I did mine.
I wish so much that Ford had designed it to come off the front side like some other vehicles so you didn't have to take the bearings and lockers off every time.

my truck is a 95 . build 8-94 do you think i can have the rotors turned with the hubs still on??

Roadkill · Dec 5, 2007

Yes, they can if they are thick enough. The machinist will measure them before he does the work to make sure they are within specs after he is done. If there is not enough material left on the rotors, he won't do it. (liability if a too-thin rotor should fail) I would take them in and check it is definately cheaper and less work to just turn the old ones.

Broncobill78 · Dec 5, 2007

Roadkill said:
Yes, they can if they are thick enough. The machinist will measure them before he does the work to make sure they are within specs after he is done. If there is not enough material left on the rotors, he won't do it. (liability if a too-thin rotor should fail) I would take them in and check it is definately cheaper and less work to just turn the old ones.

Granted all yards are different but it's always been my experience that they know good & well what the minimum thickness is and most have a caliper handy *somewhere*. I've never gotten a junkyard rotor that was too worn to turn at least a couple times but I suppose an unscrupulous yard might sell one. They know why you want it and they know that something too worn is useless. ****, one of my favorite yards back in Mass rebuilt wrecks & had a brake lathe & would sell me a used/turned rotor for $25-$30, just slap it on & be done with it. I never bothered to mic them myself, always figured if one failed the fact that I had a recently dated reciept from the junkyard would be enuf to ward off the attorneys, or at least provide a reasonable defense. But I've never had a problem with one.

Fact of the matter is I usually wind up buying a junkyard rotor after the brake dude tells me he won't turn the ones I brought him. I suppose a brake lathe in the shop would solve that problem, but who needs *those* hassles ?

Tennessee Jed · Dec 5, 2007

Since the subject is open I remember that my rotors I took off were stamped 24mm minimum thickness, when I went to buy new ones the parts guy brought out some that said 30mm thickness and they looked somewhat heavier so I asked if he had another part number for them and he did. He brought them out and they were stamped 24mm min they were noticeably thinner than the others so I took the 24mm ones since that is what I took off. Since then I have wondered if I should have got the thicker ones or if they would have cleared with the calipers I have. Since then I have warped another one which I think is due to the break lines collapsing so I have to do the entire job over and the fancy ceramic pads have crapped out the new rotors...no more ceramics for me.

Broncobill78 · Dec 5, 2007

Tennessee Jed said:
Since the subject is open I remember that my rotors I took off were stamped 24mm minimum thickness, when I went to buy new ones the parts guy brought out some that said 30mm thickness and they looked somewhat heavier so I asked if he had another part number for them and he did. He brought them out and they were stamped 24mm min they were noticeably thinner than the others so I took the 24mm ones since that is what I took off. Since then I have wondered if I should have got the thicker ones or if they would have cleared with the calipers I have. Since then I have warped another one which I think is due to the break lines collapsing so I have to do the entire job over and the fancy ceramic pads have crapped out the new rotors...no more ceramics for me.

I seem to remember something about ceramic pads having tendency to glaze when overheated and that would tie in with a warped rotor. Just a random thought & no, I doubt the thicker rotors would have worked without swapping calipers. I don't think *I* ever remember having 3mm of clearance per side with brand new rotors & pads, that's an awful lot of space.

dsgb9840 · Dec 6, 2007

DO NOT TURN YOUR ROTORS.....get new ones, it will cost you more to turn ur rotors than just getting new ones. i just rebuilt my front brakes. i went to a OEM distributer and got 2 calipers with all new hardware and pads($150), then i went to napa or pep boys and got 2 rotors for $90. don't ask me y but ive been working on cars my whole life...all 24 years of it but i will share this. for some reason new rotors and new pads will alwase outlast and out perform turned rotors, i dont know y but i have tested it, personally and just asking alot of people with "new" cars and they said the same thing...

new rotors will cost u $90...if u cant find them go to bronco graveyard.com they have em for $40 a piece

Broncobill78 · Dec 6, 2007

dsgb9840 said:
DO NOT TURN YOUR ROTORS.....get new ones, it will cost you more to turn ur rotors than just getting new ones. i just rebuilt my front brakes. i went to a OEM distributer and got 2 calipers with all new hardware and pads($150), then i went to napa or pep boys and got 2 rotors for $90. don't ask me y but ive been working on cars my whole life...all 24 years of it but i will share this. for some reason new rotors and new pads will alwase outlast and out perform turned rotors, i dont know y but i have tested it, personally and just asking alot of people with "new" cars and they said the same thing...
new rotors will cost u $90...if u cant find them go to bronco graveyard.com they have em for $40 a piece

Ok man, I'll bite.

I just gotta ask, maybe I'm the only one but I still gotta ask. The way I read your post what you're saying is that each & every time you do your brakes what you're suggesting is to *never* have your rotors turned and to instead buy a brand NEW set of rotors with each brake job. Am I reading that correctly ?

It costs me like $30 to have a pair of rotors turned. That's $15 each. I seem to need fronts every 2 or 3 years and I'm guessing it's somewhere around 25-30K per job. A set of pads costs around $15 and turning them is another $30, so I've got about $45 into the job plus my time and we all know how cheap *I* work..

Now a hub & rotor assembly for my 88' costs somewhere around $100 each locally, so that's $200 + another $15 for the pads. *each and every time* ????

I just have to disagree. Sure, I'll grant you that *maybe* a fresh rotor lasts a bit longer than one that's already been turned. I figure if it's a ****** rotor and had it's full thickness than it probably has more material to absorb heat (so it's really just a bigger heat-sink) and it'll resist warping better. But, damn, it would have to be lasting more than twice or 3x the milage of a turned rotor to make this a cost-effective solution, and they just don't last that much longer.

A rotor for my 88' from the Bronco Graveyard is $75. So that's $150 PLUS shipping ( http://broncograveyard.com/bronco/i-32574A...b_and_rotor.htm ) PLUS the pads every time I do the fronts ?

No disrespect intended here, but clearly you have more $$$ to throw around than *I* do.

Roadkill · Dec 7, 2007

Your one hundred percent right Broncobill, I get my rotors turned at a machine shop on Fort Hood for $6 each. You can't beat that, no matter how big a stick you're carying. I've been working on cars since I started helping my dad in the late seventies. (Hey boy, see if you can fit your arm down in there and stick this into that hole) I've allways had rotors turned and put back on without problems as long as they were still in good enough condition.

That being said I have noticed something odd on some newer vehicles. Before my last trip to Iraq, I did brake jobs on two Chevy's (wife's 2002 Cavalier and nieces 2003 Malibu) on both vehicles it was the first brake service. They both were due but not yet worn to the point the noise makers were in contact with the rotors. (I just did them because I new I would be gone for at least a year and they would have to pay someone to do it before I got back) Anyway, the rotors were still smooth to the toutch and not warped (no vibrating under braking). When I took them to get them turned, both sets were to close too minimum specs to be turned. That really suprised me because it was a first service for both. The machinist said he encounters that alot. When I got the new ones, I brought them ones to the machinist just to see how thick they were. Not much thicker than the old ones, in fact when its time for a brake job again, they will probably have to be replace as well.

What is GM trying to accomplish with such thin rotors? Save weight? Money? I don't get it. The paranoid freak in me says it's a conspiracy to force you to buy more parts and pay more labor charges. But we all know that no big business would ever do something like that now, don't we?

Broncobill78 · Dec 8, 2007

Roadkill said:
Your one hundred percent right Broncobill, I get my rotors turned at a machine shop on Fort Hood for $6 each. You can't beat that, no matter how big a stick you're carying. I've been working on cars since I started helping my dad in the late seventies. (Hey boy, see if you can fit your arm down in there and stick this into that hole) I've allways had rotors turned and put back on without problems as long as they were still in good enough condition.
That being said I have noticed something odd on some newer vehicles. Before my last trip to Iraq, I did brake jobs on two Chevy's (wife's 2002 Cavalier and nieces 2003 Malibu) on both vehicles it was the first brake service. They both were due but not yet worn to the point the noise makers were in contact with the rotors. (I just did them because I new I would be gone for at least a year and they would have to pay someone to do it before I got back) Anyway, the rotors were still smooth to the toutch and not warped (no vibrating under braking). When I took them to get them turned, both sets were to close too minimum specs to be turned. That really suprised me because it was a first service for both. The machinist said he encounters that alot. When I got the new ones, I brought them ones to the machinist just to see how thick they were. Not much thicker than the old ones, in fact when its time for a brake job again, they will probably have to be replace as well.

What is GM trying to accomplish with such thin rotors? Save weight? Money? I don't get it. The paranoid freak in me says it's a conspiracy to force you to buy more parts and pay more labor charges. But we all know that no big business would ever do something like that now, don't we?

You know, I've seen the same damn thing on my sister-in-laws Cavalier and wondered about it myself. The FIRST damn set of front brakes and there's not enuf there to turn them. The guy at the boneyard sounded doubtful when I called and then THEY couldn't find a set that had enuf meat left to turn. I'm really NOT a grassy-knoll sort of conspiricy theorist but it DOES make me wonder. Used to be I could plan on being able to turn my Bronco & F-truck rotors *at least* two or three times before they got too thin.

I dunno, let's blame it on Globalization & the inherent greed of large corperations. Unless you've got a better bogeyman ?

mbtech2003 · Dec 9, 2007

There is a reason y brakes are not lasting longer. There is a lot more metal in the brakes now adays and cars are going alot faster and haveto meet requirements. therefore with more metal in the pads it means the rotors will wear out faster. that also means it will have a higher "min thickness" level so the rotors will never get to an unsafe limit.

So sorry to say but now adays if your car needs brakes then pads and rotors it is. and i find this true because i work on mercedes-bends every day and every brake job gets pads-rotors and a brake fluid flush. when the pads wear out the rotors are too low to machine.

Broncobill78 · Dec 10, 2007

Well, to be honest I think it's one of those circular arguements. Each time you turn the rotors there's less & less material there so you're more & more likely to warp them. Warpage is a fucnction of heat, & the less material you have the less heat you can absorb & dissipate before the rotor warps. It's not rocket science, just plain physics. Every time you turn them you run a greater risk of warpage because you're leaving less material to handle the thermal load. On the other hand, if you don't abuse the brakes and you take care to not overheat them then you don't warp your rotors. It's one of those times when your driving style meets your wallet, plain & simple. You decide what your priority is and you drive accordingly. Plenty of old geezers out there running those rotors till they're paper thin and never once getting them warm. If you're warping every set you put on then start leting your Old Lady drive it more.

how do i pull apart my hub from my rotor

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