97 front rotor - driver side...so far

[wallygetsit]

Help.

My rotors are warped. I bought replacement rotors at Napa and am having a problem.

I can not get the driver side rotor off to save my life. I have beat and WD-40'd the hell out of this thing and it will not budge. The rotors might be the original. 128500 miles. There is rust, but damn, come on.

Am I not seeing something?

Called the dealership about a month ago and they said '97's have to different rotors. I hope he meant 2wd and 4wd. I told him it was a 4wd and he said I'd have to bring it in to see what rotors to use.

The new rotors look to be correct.

What am I doing wrong? I am going to leave the WD-40 on it overnight. We'll see. If I don't get any responses here, I am going to call around in the morning.

Thank you.

:frustrate

 

[JDraper]

WD-40 is not a good choice for freeing rusted parts, it is a water displacement chemical that just happens to act like a lubricant. Go get a can of PB Blaster, that stuff works wonders.

The rotors should come off without too much hassle. they only slip fit over the hub and wheel studs unless they are severely corroded, then it might take some muscle.

 

[wallygetsit]

Thank you. I'll go buy a can of that today. I looked at it yesterday, but trusted the WD-40 name. It says it frees rusted parts also (just not how well.)

Talked to the Ford dealer today. He was real cool about the situation. He sees that happen all of the time. He told me to heat the rotor with a torch (not too much to screw up the bearing) and then immediately pour cold water over the heated area. The thermal expansion/contraction may bust the rust loose.

Another good idea he gave me was to add anti-seize to the inside of the new rotor before installing to keep this from happening again.

As much as I've beat this rotor, I hope I did not damage the ABS sensor due to extreme vibration.