Alright,

For any of you guys who laughed at the price tag to have your front brakes replaced on your 2500 4wd, and decided to do them yourself, What may I ask is the trick in getting the brake discs off?

Do the dealers use some sort of "disc puller" or some other exotic tool (other than heat) to get these off. Right about now I'm wishing I would have let them do it!

 

After pulling off the little clips that are on the studs i just tapped them with a mallet and they came right off.

 

I can assure you there were no clips on these studs, and a "tap" wasn't going to do it. I needed a 10lb maul just to move them off the lip of the hub.

 

I did mine and was very easy. The 2ea. 10mm bolts I think the size was and the whole calp. falls off. Pads come right out. Took me 10 mins. a side after the wheels were off. Not sure why you are having issues. Best of luck!

 

Being that your in WI. , rust , I have had a few costumers with newer trucks , the ones that are just held in place like mentioned above .
But the inside of the rotor hat , rusts around the flange of the bearing hub , griping the rotor , what ended up doing in the worst cases , was remove the bearing assembly , using a small chisel , and breaking the rust between the bearing flange & rotor , makes for a bigger job .

 

Yeah John, rust, I hear ya.

Just managed to beat the left side out and I have a pile of rust (and scale that looks like pottery) all over the driveway. Beginning to wonder if I F*&%!d up the tie rods in the process. They look pretty beefy so I'm not going to stress about it yet.

I just hope the new discs will go in easier than these old ones. I've beaten them so bad that turning them is not an option anymore.

Leason learned: If the quote sounds expensive, pay them anyway. They obviously know what they're doing. Or at least more than me.

 

Make sure when you reinstall them to put anit-sieze on. I bought the parts to do it myself but after two whacks and it didnt budge I paid someone to do it. Trust me it was worth every penny! Those guys ended up having to heat it and beat the crap out of the front ones to get them off...took atleast 4 hours for them to complete.

 

There's somthing I don't miss about living in the "rust belt" anymore.......brake jobs!
Anti seize is your friend when installing almost ANYTHING back there. (including lug nuts).

 

I had the same issue on my old Ford.
When it was time to replace disks I simply cut the disk with a sawzall as far as I could going from the outer edge of the disk toward the center and then used a pry bar in the fresh cut to spread the disk and break it free from the hub. Sometimes I made two cuts if it was REALLY stuck on there.
Saves pounding on the rotors with a BFH and risking damaging stuff.

 

Give it a good soaking with a good penetrating oil, the use the BFH. I prefer PB Blaster. BTW, WD-40 is NOT a penetrating oil.

 

I have a 03 and live in wi. I had to heat them with the tourch and smack em with a 8lb sledge!!! Maybe fiat will design something easier

 

Hmmm... I have an 03, live in CT (Road Salt down, plows up mentality) and when I did my front brakes a couple months ago both of my front discs were able to come off without any force applied. The drivers side came loose as soon as I lifted off the caliper. Getting the pads off the calipers were a different story till I figured it out....

Guess I was lucky.

Mike.

 

I usually spray it first with some wd40, Remove the caliper and bracket. Then with 2X4 and 5 lbs hammer hit the back side of rotor. Usuall comes off with a few good hits. Never hit rotor surface with metal hammer. If you have a large brass dead blow hammer works good too. Take a wire brush and clean flange and rotor really good before putting on brake lathe. If you have on car brake lathe that is even better. Necessary on the older 4X4 which do not have removal rotors.

 

How many miles are you guys getting out of your front brakes? I have never done mine and have just over 80k on them and are still good 40% left prolly. Mostly hwy though. After reading this post I think ill take mine somewhere when it needs brakes as i live in the rust belt. Thanks for the heads up.

 

I done them on three trucks and this has never failed me. No fighting or hammering.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=40970