JEC

Hello everyone, I am a newbie here but have been wrenching on RX-7s and Porsches for a while.
I love my daily driver: a '92 Accord Coupe (green base model, auto, 160K+ miles), it's so comfy, so trustworthy, and willing to take abuse - like repeated hard braking...

Anyway I'm deep into replacing the front rotors (and calipers too, got some nice reman kits from NAPA) but now I'm up against the wall.

The worthless Hayes manual is fine up to where you slide the end of the axle out of the hub and turn the assembly to remove the 4 hidden 12-point bolts.

Fine - they're off. And the hub-rotor assembly is still quite firmly attached to the steering knuckle. Hayes simply says, "Remove it." HOW!!!????!!!???
I pulled, pried, cursed, even put the 12-point bolts halfway back in and tried to use my two-jaw puller to press on them with a block of steel - and scarred the side of the knuckle casting.
It's reeeeealllllly stuck.

If anyone knows how to get the rotors off without removing the whole knuckle and tossing sticks of dynamite at it, please help!

madd

what i did on my 1995....

take off all the caliper stuff brackets, etc....
took out the 4 bolts that hold the rotor in place....
popped out the upper/lower balljoints, and pulled the knuckle off....
there are 4 bolts on the back around the bearing....take those out....all this is 17mm i believe.
lightly tap the hub out of the knuckle, and presto.... reassemble.

i may have mistyped something, but my head is killing me and i figured id atleast try..meh

JEC

OK - complete removal of the knuckle, then tapping out the hub.

Thanks madd!

madd

yeah...get the axle nut socket you used and put that over the bearing and hit THE SOCKET....that a way you dont accidently wack it too hard and mess something up. although, its a hard piece of metal and yeah....just dont hit it really hard. these last coupled sentences (if you could even call them that) are pointless. good luck!

valve79

im in the middle of doing the samething and i got stuck on the 12 point socket where can i get one and is that the corect name for the socket ( 12 point and what size) ?? thanks a lot luke

valve79

that did really work good !! thanx but now what do i need to get the hub from the wheel bearing what kind of tool should i get ??

ForceThis!

slide hammer, $20 for a cheap set

actually, for that matter, a slide hammer is all you ever need, no need to seperate joints unless you are doing axles

accordion

On my '95, I did the following.

* Remove brake caliper assembly - two tough 17mm bolts
* Remove 12mm bolts off the rotor. These are shallow, might wanna use a 6-point socket to avoid stripping.
* Pop the lower ball joint, remove axle
* Remove 4 bolts connecting the hub to the knuckle - these are 14mm, I guess this is different from previous gen
* Pull the hub+bearing+rotor off the knuckle. This was a little tricky but the idea is to slowly budge the thing out of the knuckle. The bearing flange has the rough shape of a 4-point star, and fits pretty tightly into a matching opening in the knuckle. I left the 14mm bolts in, and tapped them evenly to avoid tilting the flange. Maybe you need to spray some PB rust remover and try again with the jaw puller, but don't use lots of force on a single bolt-- this will tilt the flange and get it stuck more. Instead hit them evenly, and try prying from the front too.

Schmitey

yeah if you hit the end of the axle with a standard hammer you may be f**cked, my friend got impatient and bent the threads to **** on an otherwise perfectly good axle

pneumatic impact hammer is good for that type of thing too...and works like a charm on super tight balljoints

JEC

UPDATE:

Car is back on road, new calipers and rotors - but not happy.
It has a worrisome vibration under braking - I think I screwed up.

OK - I completely removed each steering knuckle-hub-rotor assembly from the car, that's removing upper, lower, and steering balljoints, as well as undoing brakeline connection. My ball-joint dust boots were all tore up, got cheap replacements.

I held each assembly in the vice, holding the knuckle by the steering flange.
I still could not get the damn rotor off the hub!
The hub seemed to be part of the knuckle - that solid.
I pounded, chiseled, tapped gently, nothing worked. Stuck.
So I got tricky: I went to the hardware store and bought two 10x1.25 thread bolts, 80mm long.
I stuck them in two of the holes that the 10mm 12-point bolts had come out of, and then rotated the hub-rotor so that they would make contact on the inside.
Then I drew my trusty impact gun and blasted those *****.
Alternating one to the other, I managed to push the hub out of the bearing.
The hidden inside of the hub has part of the bearing race machined into it - wow.
I had exposed the bearing, so I packed it with wheel bearing grease.
I thought this was odd - it appeared the 12-point bolts did nothing.
The flange they are threaded into, that contains the main bearing, is like a permanent part of my steering knuckles.
Same thing, both sides.

I replaced the wheel studs while I had the hubs apart too - several had damaged threads. Lots of big c-clamp work to get those done.
The new rotors went on easy as pie.
For re-assembly, I set the hub-rotor assembly studs-down but on a steel block under the center of the hub.
I trimmed the end of a 2x4 and used it with my big hammer, firmly tapping on the inside of the bearing in the knuckle down to seat over the hub. It seemed fine.
Getting everything back on the car and bleeding the new calipers went fine.

But now I get a steady vibration in the steering wheel when braking.

So: I suspect I killed my wheel bearings with all the heavy-handedness - they felt a bit loose.
Or maybe I bent the hub installing the new wheel studs.
Or I didn't get it to re-assemble straight and it's running crooked.

Any thoughts?

hawkmgc

This break down of the front knuckle might help you. The bearing is suppose to be a sealed bearing. That bearing is pressed into the knuckle and then the hub is pressed into that held by a retaining ring (on some) others are just pressed in.

I have a parts one I will take pics of as it was improperly pressed apart by a shop with a press. They did not know what they were doing. FREEBIE, new bearing and installed on spare hub as I did not know if they warped this one.

Good luck

JEC

OMG I really DID screw it up!

That plate that holds the bearing (#3, top pic) did not come off the knuckle.

I separated the sealed bearings, and I'll bet I harmed at least one of them (probably both) just enough to get a wobble when the brakes clamp down. DAMN!

Man, hawkmgc, thank you for those pics. I wish I had seen them before I did this.

I think I might take the car to a shop and have the bearings replaced.

91wagon

I actually did this last weekend if my dads help. We didnt take off the knuckle, but my question is, is some viberation with new rotors and the ebc green pads normal?, as the pads have a break in period? It seems to be getting better over time(about 100 miles), but it still has some viberation. It would be helpful if anyone knows, also it was a really tight fit so I couldnt fit the shims on both sides yet(if that has something to do with the viberation), and I know I got the piston down all the way.