front brake rotors,and bearing repack,help me please!

[ncmuddin]

i need help, im goin wheelin in 2 days and i need new front shoes and rotors, when gettin the rotors at advanced auto parts they ask for the axle gearing, and i dont know! they say they have different rotors for different gear ratios, so i need tmw to replace the rotors and the shoes to be ready for wheelin the next day. also, do i need to remove the bearings to get to the rotors and repack them when i put them back on? or is that a myth, and if i do need to repack them, please tell me how

thank you soo much
this site is an awesome resource

 

[ncmuddin]

i guess i forgot to mention that the X im talking about is a 1991 xlt 4door 4x4

 

[Mbrooks420]

You can look on the white tag on the drivers door for the axle code. Any time bearings are accessable you should grease them.

 

[X~FACTOR]

Originally posted by ncmuddin
this site is an awesome resource

Yes it is. Welcome to the site.

 

[Mbrooks420]

Alec put this in another post:
Axle Codes - Located on the driver's door

Model Code Description Capacity Ratio
Bronco II 42 Regular 2640 3.45
44 Regular 2640 3.73
47 Regular 2500 4.10
D2 Limited Slip 2500 3.45
D4 Limited Slip 2640 3.73
D7 Limited Slip 2500 4.10
Ranger 72 Regular 2200 3.08
74 Regular 2200 3.45
82 Regular 2700 3.08
84 Regular 2700 3.45
85 Regular 2750 3.55
86 Regular 2700 3.73
87 Regular 2700 4.10
96 Regular 3200 3.73
F4 Limited Slip 2700 3.45
F5 Limited Slip 2750 3.55
F6 Limited Slip 2700 3.73
F7 Limited Slip 2700 4.10
K6 Limited Slip 3200 4.10
Explorer 43 Open 3200 3.08
41 Open 3200 3.27
42 Open 4.10
46 Open 3.73
45 Open 3200 3.55
D4 Limited Slip 3200 3.73
D2 Limited Slip 4.10
L73 Limited Slip 3.73

 

[ncmuddin]

thanks so much, im gonna go up to tellico, my first time goin, im stock but wanna test my driving skills, my friends say i drive awesome and w/the things ive done in my stock X when it goes up ill be unstopable, anyways, any suggestions for a tellico 1st timer?

 

[biggs85]

Do you mean you have to replace the front brake pads and rotors or the rear shoes and drums? If you replace the front rotors you do have to remove the bearings and have them pressed into the new rotors. It's a pretty big job. But if you're talking about the rear brakes then it's not such a big deal.

 

[ncmuddin]

front pads and rotors, please excuse my ignorance, i was under the impression that the pads and shoes were the same thing

 

[ncmuddin]

crap, i do have to mess w/the bearings? "big job"? i dont like the sounds of it, any suggestion/steps?

 

[biggs85]

The best thing to do is to find someone who is willing to help you out with your truck that knows what they're doing. That way you get the job done right and you actually learn how to do it. If I didn't have anyone to help me out with my brakes I would have been completely lost. If you think your brakes are ok to get through the trip I would wait till you get back before you start working on them. Just my suggestion.

 

[ncmuddin]

umm, theyre grinding and grabbing real bad, im pretty sure they need replacing

 

[biggs85]

I guess you could replace just the pads for now unless your rotors are really worn down. Check out the autozone website. They have the repair manual for the Explorer and it should help a lot.
Here I found it for ya
http://www2.autozone.com/servlet/Ui..._us/0900823d/80/0b/ce/8c/0900823d800bce8c.jsp

 

[biggs85]

Here is exactly how to replace the pads.
http://www2.autozone.com/servlet/Ui..._us/0900823d/80/0e/31/38/0900823d800e3138.jsp

 

[Glacier991]

The question you have is whether your rotors can be "turned" or are they so thin they need to be replaced. Each presents a different job. Let's start by assuming they can be turned.

The outer bearing will fall out once the spindle nut and bearing retainer behind it are removed. What's left is the "permanent" part (pressed into the rotor) the "race". On the opposite side, once you remove the rotor from the axle spindle is an identical set, with an added part.. a "grease seal". This you pry off and throw away. The bearing comes out and ... voila... a pressed in race. You WILL need a new grease seal, and grease is all, to repack the bearings. Take the rotor, with races in it to a shop that turns em, and they can tell you if it can be turned or not. If so, once you get it back clean the bearings and repack em and put it all back together. It is NOT a huge job. If you need a new rotor, you can either use a punch and hammer to remove the old races from the rotor, or buy new ones (although bearings come as a set so new races will come with new bearings). If you have new bearings because the rotors could not be turned, take em to the shop that turns rotors, or any auto machine shop and they will hammer or press in the races for ya, leaving you the new bearings.

How to press new grease into bearings. Some people buy the round things that hold the bearing and that let you use a grease gun. I bought one and gave it away. Here's how I learned to do it from an old Ford mechanic in a shop lebbenty sebben years ago. If I am reusing old bearings I clean the bearings first (we used to use gasoline to do this, I now use brake cleaner more often than not...) once they are clean, (or if you have new ones start here) get a dollop of grease in the heel of a CLEAN hand. with the big diameter down, press the round edge of the bearing into the grease, at the edge of the grease gob, over and over , nibbling ever more into the grease a little with each push down, until you see grease oozing out the top of the bearing. Rotate the bearing 15 degrees and do it again, over and over until you have done the entire bearing. Insert the bearing, put on the grease seal or the spindle retainer, tighter 'er up and you are done. Easy. <messy>. MAKE SURE YOUR HANDS ARE CLEAN! (B4 and after <g>). Hope this helps...

Happy Exploring

Chris

 

[ncmuddin]

so today i got down and dirty with the brakes, i found that i need a 2 3/8" hex socket to get some part off to allow the rotor to come off, napa sells it for $80, i said no thanks, i tried to make my own and that didnt go so well either, an adjustable wrench doesnt work bc there isnt room to get a good grip and space to turn the wrench, so i put back on what i had taken apart so far and took it to this quaint honest little shop, they said since i had the parts theyd do the job for $60, so depending on how much you buy your parts for and whether or not the mechanic wants to cheat you for your money the job still costs less than the mechanics original estimate of $200, my parts totaled for less than $100, so voila, still a good learning experience, as for wheelin at tellico, next week, anyone wanna meet another X up there? im stock but wanna try trails 1, 3, 4, and 8; you know, just a day trip, lemme know, ill prolly bring a friend or 2 w/me

 

[biggs85]

That part is what tightens the wheels bearings. There is a little key that keeps it in place that you need to pull out with a magnet. Then you can use some channle locks to loosen it up. It's nice to have the huge socket but it's not really tight in the first place. This is exactly what happened to me when I did it for the first time. That's what I meant by being a big job if you've never done it before. I'm glad you got it all taken care of though and will be able to safely go on your trip .