I am trying to replace my front and rear rotors but the front rotors wont come off after I removed the 2 screws that are there. Am I not hitting them hard enough with a hammer or am I being a dumbass?
-Thanks, Dustin

 

brake rotors I am assuming

and yes, you can smack them with a dead blow or rubber hammer

Just enough to break the rusted bond holding them... not enough to bend/damage anything

 

a saner approach is to use long bolts in the threaded holes on the rotor hats to "jack" the rotor free form the hub, ie break the bond between the rotor and th hub due to corrosion. That is the designed prupose of those bolt holes. Of course if beating something with a BFH makes you feel better, go for it!

 

actualy thoes screw hole in the rotor are for centering ... most import applications havethem

 

Ther are 2 sets of Holes, the Countersunk holes are for retaing the rotors on the hub on the assembly line before the wheels are installed. The threaded holes are for jacking the rotor off.

EDIT: above applies to OEM/Factory rotors only

 

take a normal hammer (not the rubber one) and beat the center of it between the studs. This will break loose the crud built up behind the rotor which is acting as a glue.

 

Allright, thanks guys. Ya there are only one set of countersunk holes on the front rotors only. Took the screws out and dont see why the rotor wont come free. Will tap on the center to break the bond though. Will let you guys know later, Thanks-Dustin.

 

i work at a dealer and take off brake rotors. you just wack them with a hammer one side and then the other till they come off.

your not going to brake anything

 

If they have been on there for like 5-10 years it's going to be near impossible to get the fronts off, I jsut took mine off to day, and it took 45 minutes of prying on the back, and hammering the **** out of the rotor hat, making the rotors useless, but that wasn't a concern because I had new rotors going on.

 

So there is a set of holes for a longer bolt to Jack the rotor away from the hub? or is there just the countersunk holes with the screws in them & can you use those holes to jack away with?

I really want to see what these rotors look/feel like.
-Thanks, Dustin.

 

If you look at the rotor, there are the 2 countersunk holes for the screws to hold the rotors on. There is also a 3rd hole that is not countersunk that should be threaded the same (I think). If you look at it, it will look like a very short hole -- because it only goes through the rotor face. Run a longer bolt or screw into that hole and tighten it down -- essentially you are pushing against the hub behind the rotor and forcing the 2 apart.

The countersunk holes are simply there to hold the rotor on the hub when you have the tire off -- and in fact you probably won't need to put screws back in there when you put everything back together. But in short, no you can't use those 2 holes to push the rotor off of the hub -- it's the 3rd hole that you use for that.

 

WHACK

turn

WHACK

turn

WHACK

turn

WHACK

turn....


oh - leave on wheel nut threaded on slighty so when the thing flies off it doesn't land on your face

 

Ha, ha........ok thanks guys.

 

I just finished my brakes a couple hours ago. the rotors were rusted onto the hubs so bad, I had to undo the hub from the stub axle, put it in the press and heat it up with a torch to get them off. not fun... use anti-sieze lube whenever you do brakes for this exact reason.

 

No ****!

 

This can be a fine line...I've had to whale on rotors pretty hard before, to the point where I started thinking "yeah, I'm going to break something for sure here". Never have yet though, knock on wood. Stuck rotors suck.

 

Yea, I was hitting them hard enough to put in ear pieces, then I was like........f_ck, I'm gonna' break something! So I stopped and went to the forum for help.


-Dustin

 

Yeah... It'd be nice to have access to a torch. If you don't (most don't), try the 'jacking' method and if it's not popping off, leave the screw in there (that's pushing it out) and then start smacking the crap out of 'em.

 

all right