Hi,

!st post on the board and in dire need of help.

For the life of me, I can't figure out on how to get the rotors off the truck. Its a 97 3500 4x4. I've gotten the axle nut off. But from there, I'm lost. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

First - welcome to DTR.

There are several threads on this problem - a simple search should bring up tons of info.

Heres the quick and dirty version (from when I did my 3/4T) that Im trying to remember:

1) put the axle nut back on (yes, you read that right) - If you do this with the axle nut off, you will seperate the bearing in the hub - not a good idea and $$$
2) remove calipers and hang out of the way
3) remove the 4 bolts on the back of the rotor -they are 14 or 15 mm 12 point socket
4) put back one of the bolts in and screw in a few turns. Then put a socket extension on the bolt and rest the extension on the frame of the truck - use the power steering pump to pop the rotor off the dteering knuckle.
5) this method did not work for me - I was replacing the rotors so I eneded up beating the rotors off with a couple of 5 pound hammers
6) If you do a search you will find a pic that shows you exactly how to do the above procedure
7) make sure you support the axle stub in the diff housing (I used a block of wood) and dont pull it out too far, you can damage you axle seal
8) NOW remove the axle nut
9) now the rotor/hub assemble should slide right off the shaft/steering knuckle.
10) put the nuts back on the studs, and hit them sharply with a brass drift or hammer. This will seperate the rotor from the hub.
11) transfer the hub to the new rotor and reverse the procedure
12) hopefully you have a compresser and impact to help reinstall the stud in the new rotor (stack some washers up and use the impact to suck the studs into the new rotor.
13) good luck getting the dust shields lined up....
14) make sure you use lots of antisieze when putting it back together....

 

Thanks for the reply.

I did the old beat the crap outta'em method. Also, I figured on the antisieze since I practically had to beat everything off.

What I did for the dust shields was to put the 4 back bolts back in, lined it up that way and hefted the rotor/hub onto there and propped them up so I could align it better.

I must say though, it was a process to get'em off. 22 bolts per wheel. I guess I was figuring it'd be like any other 3/4 ton/1 ton I've driven. But alas, I was proved wrong.

Once again, thanks for the rely

 

Hope it helped you out....