Question- are there differences in difficulty between the different generations, or are they all basically the same? I have pulled mine, but with 180,000 miles, did not have nearly the trouble that I am hearing on this post. So I just wonder if certain years are worse than others.
To say the least, using high temp anti-sieze made the second time a breeze.

 

Hodge, I guess our trucks are freaks of nature then!!!! I replaced both front rotors about a month ago with 109,000 miles on then, took the hub extenders off, hit the part of the rotor that went over the lugs with a 2# hammer and the thing fell off.

 

It is less the truck and more the location. Most of the guys having problems live in the northern half of the US. A 6 year old truck in AZ are probably a breeze to work on (although I don't want to be in the garage when it is 115 degrees out) whereas a truck that has seen even 1 or 2 Michigan winters will be challenging to remove stuff like this. A little bit of anti seize at the factory would make some of this stuff a non-issue.

 

Use this site to calculate the required extention. Torque adapter. This assumes you have a torque wrench but just not one big enough to get to 263 ft/pounds.

 

I recall that doing the rotors on my '97 was a PITA, had to wedge something in there, pop out the hub, whack out the studs, separate the rotor from the hub, sandwich it back together, and then put it back in.

Do the rotors on an '07 (5.9L) work the same way, or do they just come off like a normal vehicle?

 

A few things make this job so much faster an easier: 1) PB Blaster and 2) air tools!

I don't recommend using heat on the caliper. If it's heated unevenly it can warp the rotor. Instead hose down the rotor with PB Blaster and let it soak for a while. Then use a drift to hammer the rotor from the back side (the inner part, not the part that the pads contact), then carefully rap on the front side near the studs (again not on the smooth pad contact area) gently--shouldn't take a lot of pounding. Just work your way around the rotor while turning it and it'll come off. Worst case, an air hammer carefully used on the back side of the rotor will take it off in about .5 seconds. For the unit bearing, again hose down the bearing studs with PB Blaster and let them soak for a while. Then with a socket extension use the "power-steering method" to break it loose. Use an impact for the axle nut and ball joint nuts. Shouldn't have to exert a lot of effort to get this done. I've watched a pro mechanic do all this work on a CTD and he wasn't having to work up a sweat at all. He wasn't using any other special methods or tools either. Only special too that gave him an advantage was being able to put the truck on a lift so he could work on it at standing height. But stuck rotors are not unique to the CTD, I've had several vehicles through the years that had the same issue.

 

had trouble with mine one time and did some messuring inside of rotor mounting area 1mm bigger than hub area. a little surface rust and its stuck like glue. Since then I always enlarge rotor with a small grinding wheel and never sizie it.