You just reminded me. I tried it. It works great.
I saw that on this site a while back. Next time I did brakes, I bought the correct size grade 8 bolts & nuts at Tractor Supply Company and got a bunch of flat washers, put it in a zipper bag with instructions (good memory, just really short sometimes), and put it in my tool box.
You need the hard bolts. They are more slippery! This makes rotor removable fun!
Fortunately, I have 4 cars (all GM) that this “kit” will fit the caliper brackets.
CSA
Our mechanic was complaining just yesterday because he ended up cutting the rotors off on an 03 ford truck, If the op was doing that hopefully done by now!
I’ve had the stuck rotor problem myself, on my old VW Rabbit. I eventually got it off – actually it fell off all by itself – after I got fed up banging on it with a hammer and switched to using a propane torch to heat the rotor, and plenty of patience to allow time for the heat to get where it needed to go.
I’d have guessed with the right puller tool you could get most any rotor off. But maybe such a thing is easier said than done. I’ve never used a puller to remove a rotor myself.
Ray has addressed this stuck rotor problem on the Car Talk radio program before. He said a propane torch isn’t good enough sometimes, you have to use an oxy-acetylene torch to get enough rapid heat transfer.
I guess if I had one so stuck that the heat method simply didn’t work, rather than cutting it off (with a Sawz-All presumably) I might try drilling a hole clean through it and use a hardened bolt to cut its own threads into the hole and push it off that way. If you couldn’t get the bolt to cut the threads, another way might be to expand the hole a little so the bolt slides through it easily, then place matching-thread nut & washer between the far side of the rotor and what you pushed against. I’m presuming the reason the Sawzall method is more commonly reported here is that it is easier to cut through the rotor with metal saw blade than drill a big hole through it.
Used a sledge hammer a few times to knock loose a frozen rotor. Does not even take a heavy blow, the weight of the sledge hammer alone does a fine job. I can already see all the experts here crinch, but so far it worked for me.
I always hesitate using an excessive blow from a sledge hammer out of concern for the wheel bearing.
Good call, but one must factor in the frustration some folks are going through, leading up to the sledge hammer bludgeoning.
In certain situations, possibly sacrificing a wheel bearing is better than some of the alternatives that include, but are not limited to, using dynamite on one’s own car or running it off a cliff!
I’ve reached my frustration limit a time or two over the years of working on cars. Sometimes a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.
CSA