I’d try whacking it lightly but a lot, all around the edge, with the force in, toward the axle. In my experience a combination of Blaster, heat from a heat gun and lots of vibration from steady hammering around the edge will get the rust seal broken. Because he says the rotors are wiggling a bit on the studs it sounds more like rust and crud between the studs and the holes in the rotor needs to be broken down.
Beat the living SH*& out of that rotor and watch it FALL off… You cant damage it…your replacing it. Just dont whack your studs and mess up the threads…it can happen believe me…LOL Dont ask.
But seriously…it is just rust and crud holding it on… primarily from around the center bore hole…and on the face of the wheel hub. I use never seize on my new rotors to prevent this…and it works like a charm.
Just use a nice big Baby Sledge…and call it a day.
Blackbird
“just smack it HARD on the flat surface of the rotor till it pops free.”
Talk about killing 2 birds with 1 stone
Separate the rotor from the hub
And vent some frustration
With every blow of that BFH, you can think of your lousy boss, ex-wife, in-law, etc. . . .
A sledgehammer ended up working! Took a fair bit of pounding on them, but they came off eventually. I guess they were just rusted to hell. Have to love Nova Scotia winters. Everything that can be seized will be seized.
Things kept going wrong after this. I couldn’t get the pads in place because they were too tight on the caliper bracket. I had to get an angle grinder and grind them down so that they could move back and forth a bit. Still tight after grinding, but able to move. I started doing my brakes thinking it would be simple. It wasn’t!
"With every blow of that BFH, you can think of your lousy boss, ex-wife, in-law, etc. . . . "
Actually, I was just thinking about how much I hated that damned rotor.
Jeff, good on you for not giving up. Think of this as a Sherlock Holmes experience. You’re the detective, and the criminal has stuck the rotor on there to frustrate you. Remember what Sherlock says, when you’ve eliminated the impossible, whatever’s left has to be the solution. Didn’t he also say something about the importance of a dog that doesn’t bark? Well, one of those sayings might apply in your case … lol … one has to keep a sense of humor in times like this.
Re: tight pads. Are you following the manufacturer’s procedure? Are you certain the new pads and new rotor you are using are the correct ones for this car? Usually when I’ve done that “install the new pads” part of the job — applies to both my Rabbit and Corolla – I had to open the bleeder on the caliper and use a C-clamp to push the piston a little further apart. Otherwise the new pads wouldn’t fit. But I suppose w/new pads and a new rotor and tight tolerances, a person could run into this problem anyway. I’m a little concerned your new brakes might drag, heat up, boil the fluid, and stop working, so monitor the temperature of the front wheels carefully for the first few drives.
If I were presented with the original problem of the old rotor being stuck fast, I might have tried to rig up a slide-hammer and a puller arrangement to try to break it free. Might not work, but it would be an interesting experiment to try. Also, if I could work in some plywood into the experiment , I’d definitely try that. Whenever I can use plywood, that’s a good day … lol …
Well you do have another rotor on other side. See if that rotor comes off easier. And repeat for stuck rotor.
I fear that you are headed for bigger problems.
I recommend that you head to your local library, or the parts store for a manual. There should be no reason to grind on the pad material or any other part for that matter.
compressing the caliper as @GeorgeSanJose described is most likely where your problem is.
Or you ordered …or were given…the wrong parts that don’t match your car.
That’s what we call a “hack job”.
Yosemite
Actually, I read the same thing as you guys, and I see it differently
I see it as yet another rust problem
I’ll assume the pads aren’t sliding in the slots on the caliper bracket . . . because the caliper bracket is so rusty, it’s “blooming”
And that “blooming” is probably responsible for the tight fit
Take a look . . .
http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/moreinfo.php?pk=1021591&cc=1386334&jnid=433&jpid=8
Remove the stainless steel clips from the caliper brackets and remove the rust from the brackets with a stiff wire brush. When clean the pads should fit without effort.
BTW, with each swing of the hammer I would be thinking about the wheel bearing. I wouldn’t use an 8 pound sledge hammer on a hub and rotor.
I live in the rust belt of the northeast. Rotors are always rusty and pads are always tight fitting due to rust blooming that db4690 mentioned. I wire brush hubs and calipers (after removing the stainless steel slider clips) and then put a small amount of anti-seize in the face of the hub. Pop the steel clips back into the caliper after wire brushing and dab the contact surfaces with high-temp grease and the pads should slide right in real nice. If you take the time to prep all your materials right your next brake job will be a little easier (depending on how many years you go between brake jobs).
I think DB4690 hit the nail on the head with his “Blooming” comment… No doubt about it.
Blackbird
Congratulations On Tackling This Ugly Job, Yourself! You’re Saving Money And Learning.
Sounds To Me Like This Car Would Benefit From New Calipers And Another Set Of Pristine Brake Pads. Chalk Up The Last Set Of Pads As Part Of The Learning Curve, Leaving You Still Money Ahead.
But, what scares me is getting the flexible brake lines unscrewed from the old calipers. This could open a new can of worms. And then there’s bleeding, probably gravity bleeding.
I live in salt/rust country and have had stuck rotors and stuck wheel rims, but not that much rust on calipers as you seem to be experiencing. Answer this… Is the rest of this vehicle safe to drive with the extent of rust you’re dealing with?
Are you trying to make it go for a long haul or just long enough to get by temporarily?
CSA
You have to get the rotor off, if it takes a 15 lb sledgehammer so be it. If the wheel bearing needs replacing later, well that’s lifr.
Re: Removing the old rotor
Just curious what the pros would do in this case. I’ve had to hit a rotor from behind with a hammer on my Rabbit one time, but used a framing hammer and a 3 lb construction hammer, never had to use a sledge, and I put a block of 2 x wood in between the hammer and the rotor.
It seems like for me. heat works really good on things like this, but requires a lot of patience, can be fairly time consuming to wait until the heat gets to where it is needed. Ok method for a diy’er, but for a pro wasting time for the heat to equilibrate might be wasting a lot of money. Isn’t there a rotor-removal gadget pros would have that would gradually pull the rotor off, with no need for banging with hammers? Or if there is no place to place the pivot for the puller – nothing to pull against in other words – is there a slide-hammer-gadget method to carefully knock it off its moorings?
I live in the heart of the rust belt and I will tell you that heat and shock will work where no press or puller will. I have seen wheels on a lift that couldn’t be removed by a large mechanic with a 12 lb sledge. That one the center of the steel wheels had to be heated cherry red with a torch, then beat with the sledge.
I agree
Sometimes, there is no substitute for foul language AND brute force
I’ll go slightly off topic now
I remember several years ago, some guy asked me how to remove an a-pillar panel. He said he’d tried to use a plastic wedge to pop it free, but he wasn’t having any luck
I went over to the vehicle he was working on, took a look at the situation. Then I told him to “step aside”
He did step aside, and good thing that he did
I got my fingers behind that a-pillar panel, really put my back into it, and yanked it free. It took so much force to pop it, that had he been standing close to me, I would have broken his nose
That panel came off perfectly. No damage to me, the car, or my coworker
Yup, there are times when nothing BUT brute force will get the job done
Thanks, good info. Sounds like I need to continue to keep some big hammers on hand … lol …
Before you reach for the big hammer try a little finesse. Clean the exposed hub center with a stiff wire brush or emery cloth. Apply penetrating oil. Using the flat end of a 32 ounce ball pein hammer strike the rotor inward between the studs. The rotor should rebound off the hub. If not it is time for the blue wrench. Heat the rotor center for 30 to 60 seconds with an acetylene torch, then knock the rotor off. This should be done quickly, you want only the rotor to expand, not the hub. This should be done before the hub becomes hot enough to damage the wheel bearing or seal.
Or you could take a long handled sledge hammer and bust the car into little pieces in front of the customer. Thirty years ago I worked as a mechanic in Milwaukee and I never witnessed anyone taking a sledge hammer to a vehicle.