coldfire

iTrader: (1)

well ok i'm going to have to check and try to find that third threaded hole.

nope, i don't have a sludge hammer unfortunately. i really hate wacking my car like this though

Snrub

iTrader: (1)

Wacking your car? Take the hub off the car son! It's REALLY easy to pull the hub off the car, there is no reason not to. You pull the cotter pin, pull off the nut and it practically slides into your hands. An equivilant of what you're saying is that you want to pull the wheel off the car, but you don't want to remove the lug nuts.

Put the hub it on the ground so that its sitting on the studs. On the back you should see 5 holes. Two of them are further out than the other three. The ones you want to use are the three inner holes. All the "bang on it" stuff is crap. Even with the hub off it didn't matter how hard I hit the rotor/hub, I used heat, etc. it was stuck. Save yourself the hassle and the potential of having to buy a new hub and do it the way I've outlined.

im_the_mainevent

iTrader: (5)

i had to use a press to get my rotors off of the wheel hub... really sucked huge

tekgraphx

I just pulled the front rotors on my 88 vert a few weeks ago. They wouldn't budge on the car so I removed the front hub and took it to the press. It took a lot of pressure before the rotor started to move. When I looked at the back of it I could see that the inside of the rotor (where the hub slides in), had a thick coating of oxidation/rust on it. It was actually holding the hub inside the rotor.

I used a wire brush in an angle grinder to remove most of the oxidation on the second one and it came off much easier. After I got the hubs out I also took them to the bench grinder outfitted with a wire brush and cleaned up the outside edge of the hub. Now they just slip right into the new rotors (they will get a coating of anti-seize before their final installation).

It is probably worth the extra effort and couple of bucks to pull the hubs and let a local shop press them off for you (assuming you don't have a press). That way you are not beating on the hubs (could damage your wheel bearings), and you don't have to drink any more auto fluids. You should really pack the bearings anyway if you are going to all the other trouble.

Good luck with it!

TII '87

Simply do what did if you're gettin' agressive as I was...

remove each hub and bring it to the machine shop, ask them to place the rotor/hub assembly upside down, sitting on the stud, then they'll take a heavy metal ring to fit fit the exact size the rotor

after that, they simply place the rotor/hub assembly with the metal ring sitting on the inner edge of the rotor under a hydraulic press

it does the job FAST, and you'll swear you heard a gunshot when the rotor brakes loose.

cost me 20$ canadian...

fast, cheap, efficient

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

ok, thanks for the all the help everyone, especially you Snrub for telling me all my wrong doings, lol

looks like i'm just going to end up pulling off the hub.
i'll either try taking the rotor off using the bolt pushing method, or just spend a few bucks to get it taken off at a local machine shop.

since i'm doing this i may as well re-pack the bearings. is the bearing grease i can pick up at a local store good enough for the job? don't really want to wait a week to order the Redline stuff...

i'll try to post pics on the progress later

Snrub

iTrader: (1)

Lol, sorry I just see a little of me in you. I know I often don't want to believe that I have to go to an elaborate length to make something happen, but I've already suffered through all of this crap so I don't want to see you do the same.

When you say "repack the front bearing" do you mean you want to replace them? If so you're opening a can of worms that will make your rotor replacing exercise seem like a breeze. The problem is that the race for the bearing is not ment to be replaced. It's a horrible job to get the race out and put a new race back in. You have to grind away material and work on some frustrating angles. You could keep the current race and just replace the bearings, but obviously that's not as good.

WonkoTheSane

iTrader: (2)

No, I think he meant just repack them with grease. For the record, I've never had a problem with the stuff from car shops.. I mean, bearing grease is pretty much bearing grease, as long as you go with a brand you already know.

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

There's actually a much easier trick, if you have a welder.

Weld a bead around the inner circumfrence of the bearing race and let all parts completely cool. Turn the hub upside down, tap slightly with a feather, and the race will drop right out.

The weld softens the metal, and as it cools it shrinks, thus reducing the outside diameter of the race.

Snrub

iTrader: (1)

Regardless if Wonko's right, this is an interseting trick...

That sounds pretty cool. Have you seen this work before? My only concern would be how strong the weld would be and how strong it would be relative to the race. The race is really hard which says to me that it's a high carbon steel. Getting the race out take hard pounding. I just wonder how well a weld on the race would stand up.

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

nope, i'm not going to touch the race at all, i know that will be a big job in itself, lol.

ok, i took the hub off along with the rotor, but i honestly don't see the threaded holes you are talking about. are you SURE you aren't talking about the REAR hub??

all i see are the 5 studs, and then the 2 threaded holes for the screws.
and now that the rotor is off along with the hub, i have no clue how to get the rotor off, any suggestions on this?

- Aaron

spot_skater

i don't remember if it was the fronts or the rears when i did my brakes, but i had to drill them out

then i had to bang em out with a hammer...i didn't really worry about bending anything though, because all rotors were replaced

hope it gets easier for you..mine wasn't bad

i hope you've got a press or something...i think those bearings are pressed in

when i did mine i just brought em over to the shop press and pressed them out...
thats going to be a bitch dude...i'm sorry

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

nope, the bearing just slid out easy.

it's just that it's hard to bang the rotor because there isn't anything for the hub part to rest on, you know what i mean?
looks like i might just be sending it to a shop with a press...

RXciting

Aaron you dink your still messing with your brakes!?

Listen if your brakes are as bad as Daves were, which is sounds like they are, then you should starting thinking about taking them to a shop.

Daves rotors were so siezed even after dipping them and using a rotor puller the actual braking surface of the rotor broke off leaving the center still there. He ended up having to take them to a machine shop anyways.

Get your car fixed soon an show up in ottawa aason.

Good luck

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

ok, so i took it to a shop with a press. now they couldn't even get it seperated with a press!

so they had to cut the rotor in half to get the hub seperated. the guy came back out and handed me the smoking hot hub (with rags of course).
so yes, finally the damn thing is seperated!

now my concern, and the guy at the shop mentioned this also, is whether or not the hub and bearings are still fine to use. how can i tell if it is?

- Aaron

TII '87

Wow, that's incredible!!

The press wasnt even able to separate my rotors from my hubs at the first try, but at least after a couple of time, htey suddenly BANGED separate...

that's the first time I hear such a story like that...

I'm happy you got those separate

well to know if your bearings and hubs are still ok... I can say that a hub is a pretty undestructible thing... so I doubt this is really damaged...

on my TII, my mechanic told me one of my front bearing was toast, So I simply took another hub and bearing form my part car, because mazda didn't want to sell me only the bearing, they wanted to sell me the hub/bearing assembly . I told them to **** themselves of course...

Your best bet would be to tkae your hub at a mechanic shop to get them inspected, if the bearing are toasted, replace them with new breaing at the machine shop, or simply buy used, cheap, hubs with good bearing

hope this helps

l-p

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

well, i am just going to place confidence in my hub and bearings still being ok.
i'm going to get out as much of the old grease as possible, and load it with new high pressure grease.

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

ok so i got one corner of the car done, yay. lol.
looks very nice though with everything brand new.

so i moved on to the passenger side front, and THANK GOD FOR ANTI-SIEZE!
don't know if it was put on from the factory or from someone previously changing the brakes, but all the bolts came off soo easy, i loved it.
i still have to take off the rotor, but i'm going to hope based on the anti-sieze on the bolts that it will be easier to take off.

speaking of anti-sieze, i picked some up and gooped it ALL OVER the bolts and the back of the rotor and the hub.
they had 2 types of anti-sieze, the normal one and a "copper" one. wasn't quite sure the difference so i just picked up the normal one...

- Aaron

johnnyg

Geez, I could have written this thread a year ago!

I got this tip exactly when I'm giving it to you...too late to matter!

The "trick" (and there's always a trick!) is - apparently - to thread the caliper mounting bolts back into the caliper mount. Without the caliper, they will hit the rotor. Tighten, rotate the rotor, tighten, etc. until the rotor comes free.

Sounds perfect to me, but I never got a chance to try it.

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

yup, someone else had mentioned this to me.
i did actually try it, but then i stopped because it was getting pretty tight and i didn't want to damage the caliper mount or anything.

oh well, surprisingly Canadian Tire didn't charge me for trying to press it apart, and then cutting the rotor in half

johnnyg

They probably had fun doing it. I know I would have

SexInDaRex

I had this same problem of not being able to remove the rotor from the hub. I first removed the screws from the rotor and then put the hub on the studs and hit the rotor with a hammer and the bitch fell right off after a few good hits. Easy as hell.

digitalsolo

iTrader: (2)

I just had my rotors pressed off today. 2 hours of beating with a 5 lbs sledge wouldn't budge them. It took the shop 40 minutes to get them apart, and they broke the rotor and almost overloaded a 30 ton press doing it.

I have a big big tube of anti-seize for the reassembly.

johnnyg

You didn't have my hub and rotor! I pounded the rotor so hard, I didn't just bend the rotor, I actually broke the disc part away from the center part.

Doing what you did actually had the studs coming out of the hub.

Ultimately, I removed both hubs from the car, used a dremel tool to chew away at the crud holding the pieces together on the backside, then devised a support system that allowed me to whack away with a sledgehammer until the parts separated. I destroyed one hub in the process with an errant blow. It was a $500 mistake.

Incidentally, I replaced the front bearings and races a few years ago using parts from Mazdatrix. It really wasn't all that hard to do. One of the bearings was in pretty bad shape. Thank goodness I started autocrossing...it was my first tech inspection that caught it!

coldfire

iTrader: (1)

yup, many people on this forum have similar horror stories!

both myself and the guy at the auto garage agreed it is due to the fact that the hub is aluminum and the rotor is high-iron steel.
this is fine in maybe the southern states, but up north here where there is a lot of moisture and salt on the road it becomes just a mess of corrosion welding.

now that i have dressed it with anti-sieze and don't drive the car in the winter i'm sure it's going to be a cake-walk in the future...