Replacing Brake rotors

The tech articles have great procedures for replacing brake pads and rebuilding calipers, but does anyone know how to remove and replace the rotors?

Heck yeah. Take the caliper off, except for the hose and hang it will wire so the hose is not damaged. Take the dust cap off the end of the hub. Use an allen wrench to loosen and remove the nut and washer. a bearing is next (don't drop it), which shoudl be cleaned and repacked with grease. the whole hub/rotor assembly now comes off. I think four bolts hold the rotor to the hub. I think they only go on at 18 lb-ft.

I like to "turn" new rotors once they are on the hub, but others might disagree. A place in town does an excellent job for $10.50 apiece. For this, it will be necessary to replace the seal in the rear of the hub.

This is all very easy, but greasy and messy. Clean everything very well, especially on final assembly. ANY grease on the rotor will cause squeaking brakes.

This is for front brakes. I think rear brakes are a little different.

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'83 SC



[This message has been edited by Superman (edited 06-23-2000).]

The rear brakes are much easier than the front. Superman gave a pretty good description of the preocess. The rears come off in pretty much the same way except you don't have to fool areound with the bearings.

You need to be carefull with the front rotors because on assembly there is a specific amount of free play allowed when tightening the hub nut. I can't remember off hand but I'm sure someone here knows.
I replaced mine about a year ago with cross drilled rotors.
Good luck,

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Leland Pate

___79 SC Targa

I don't know if the brake line routing has changed with later cars or not, but on '73 and earlier cars there are 'hard' brake lines to mounting points on both the struts and semi-trailing arm, and NOT enough 'slack' to allow removal of the calipers without disconnecting the hard line, either at the caliper, or from the rubber flex hose ... your choice, but you MUST have Flare-nut wrenches, and be prepared to refill and bleed the system after rotor replacement!

The rear rotors are held to the hub with two slotted, flat-head screws that tend to rust! A precisely-fitting drive bit is mandatory, and if one or more are rusty, be prepared with a propane torch or oxy-acetylene 'Rosebud tip' ... and don't plan on a 'quick' job!!!

If your flex hoses are more than ten years old, and if you have to order the rotors, you might as well replace the hoses, too!

One last caution ... don't even think about using an air hose to blow away the brake dust after you remove your wheels! I strongly recommend taking the car to a manual wand-wash place just before you intend to start this job, and spend the whole five, or four, minutes washing off your wheels, calipers, rotors and suspension in the vicinity! Any wet brake dust left behind is a LOT easier to deal with and clean up with Windex and paper towels than the dry kind!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa

The preceeding repliessay most of it. BUT they leave out the removal of the dust cup! My '*$ needed new rotors, the calipers are the easy part. Luckly for me there was an excellent article in Excelence (about a year ago) about the subject.

The dust caps can really fuse them selves to the hub. One way to get them off is a good old drill. If your caps seem welded to the hup you might try this:

On the hub there is an indent arount the dust cap, drill through the thin metal of the dust cap , 1/4/ inch drill works. Then with a flash light spin the hup until you see the allen bolt which secures the bearings/hub to the shaft, loosen it and spin off the whole it, hub, rotor, outer bearing. Thake the hub to your bench and drive out the dust cover from the "inside".

When you reassemble, just turn the dust cap 1/4 turn and the hole you drilled will be covered by the hub......

Sounds ugly but it worked for me

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