Advice for stuck rear brake rotors?

[anthonyb]

Alright. Been trying to replace the rear brake rotors on my parent's 300E for the last couple of shop days. I have searched the threads, have smacked the face of it countless times with a 2lb dead-blow hammer, have soaked the rotors in penetrating oil to the point where oil is weeping out of the bolt holes at the hub/rotor interface, have smacked it from the backside almost as many times as the front side, and STILL the rotor will not budge. The parking brake is off, and the allen screw is out.

It's almost like someone epoxied it to the hub.

Thanks in advance,
Anthony

[Bob Weir]

Heat it up with a torch. It's thick steel so it's gonna require patience. And don't be afraid to hit the wheel mounting surface with a heavier hammer. As a rough guess, I'd say about 50% of the inner surface can accumulate rust. Many listers recommend PB Blaster as best rust dissolver.

Good luck. Mine weren't quite as difficult as your's appear to be.

Bob

[danwatt]

I second the torch method. Also, grab some dry ice. Heat it up with the torch, then apply the ice. The rapid expansion/contraction should help.

Hit that sucker as hard as you can. Doesn't really matter if you damage the rotor, you're replacing it after all.

[Ethan]

not only hit the parking brake but loosen the parking brake through the hub hole by turning the small gear. are you familiar with the design of the parking brake?

I use a ten lb. hammer from behind on the rotor to smack it off the car,

[Roncallo]

I had a similare problem with a 1969 Oldsmobile Cutlass. I was driving home from school about 500 miles and noticed the breaks progressively running out of pedal travel. These were drum breakes all four wheels. Since I had no tools, except for a bumper jack and lug wrench, I got off the road and pulled up to a auto parts store in hopes to fix whatever might be wrong.

I jacked up the car and found that the left rear wheel needed treemendous amount of adjustment, which I was able to do by running into the parts store and getting a break spoon. But I could not get the drum off to inspect why the car suddenly needed so much adjustment. So I adjusted it and went on but about every 100 miles or so I would have to adjust it again. Each time I would try to remove the drum with my limited tools and soaking it with penetrating oil but no luck. For the last 300 or so mile all I could think of was the set of tourches I had in my garage at home and how I was going to mutilate this drum when i got home. It was one of those trips where you are talking to your car and saying things like "Oh you are so @##$% dead when I get home.

So I finally go the car home pulled out the tourchs. I jacked the car up and started removing the wheel with a big smile. When I got the wheel off, the drum just instantly slid right off without applying any heat or force.

The car saw the tourches and my attitude and it new I was not in a mood to messed with.

True Story
John Roncallo

[Hatterasguy]

First make sure the parking brake is off.

Then grab a torch and heat the heck out of the hat. Heat the hat and it should pop off real easy in a few minutes.

[Strife]

Loosening the parking brake by turning the star wheel was required on my car, and it STILL took a lot more hammering than I felt comfortable doing.

[anthonyb]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Turns out that I don't have access to a torch (although I'm beginning to think they are handy to have around), and it also turns out that I was using the wrong tool. My dad had an old 2.5 lb sledge, and a few whacks from the backside took the rotors right off. My jaw just about fell to the floor when I saw that happen.

Lesson for the day: when dealing with old rusted rotors, use a sledgehammer.

[Hatterasguy]

Head to Sears and buy yourself a torch. You would have had the rotors off in 5 minutes with one. I really don't see how you can do much suspension work on an old car without one.

[anthonyb]

Well, the answer to that question is, up until recently, I haven't TRIED to do suspension work on an old car. But thanks for the tip, it seems like there are a couple of decent ones that aren't too expensive. At least for occasional work.

[wbain5280]

Clean the rust and debris off the hub first. The rotor will then slide on and off with ease.