Lue Oven

Notes after repair.

Today I’ve had another weekend project.

This time it was a front brake job with replacement of captive rotor on 1994 Accord (never removed before).

Of course I was well prepared for this job, and of course, some unpredictable things came to play. I will list my notes in numerical order:
The car sitting next to Honda was not mobile so I’ve had about 2 feet of space to work
I’ve used Porter-Cable corded electric impact gun to remove an axle nut and to break loose four rotor to hub bolts (14 mm impact socket)
The caliper bolts/pins (17mm ) were frozen in the caliper bracket due to petroleum grease from the last brake job
Craftsman flat head screwdriver with 1/4 inch square shank inserted between the rotor cooling fins and wedged against the caliper bracket was strong enough to keep the rotor from turning when necessary
I’ve used two ton 2 jaw OTC brand puller with 3/8” forcing screw to pre-tension the ball joint studs before striking them with vintage hammer. In order to improve safety and prevent damage to the threaded ends, I installed short 17 mm socket on the loosened castle nut and inserted an “amputated” 3/8” socket head screw into the square hole of the socket; the forcing screw of the puller goes into the hex hole of the socket head screw. As a result all ball joints were separated fast and effectively without great deal hammering and popping noise.
The hardest part was extraction of the bearing hub from the steering knuckle. I ended up inserting two 60 mm long high strength (12.9) socket head jack screws (M10X1.25) in place of rotor to hub attaching bolts, which I positioned against the bosses on the steering knuckle (approx 12.30 and 6.30); one of the screws ended up pressing on the dust shield attaching screw (and it made trough procedure). In order to prevent bearing separation I’ve tightened it up with large trough bolt, nut and heavy washers (similar to “hub saver”). It took a lot of elbow grease, perspiration and bad language during that exercise (I’ve forgot 5/16 socket bit and used Allen wrench, which did not give enough mechanical advantage). Note: for those who will use this approach, use the 8 grade bolt minimum 3/4 inch diameter, 5 inches long with 2.5 inches OD washer minimum 9/32 inch thick covering entire inner bearing race; other side can use washer with 40 mm OD of equal thickness. Torque the nut to100 foot pounds. Rotate your jack screws 1/2 turn at the time.
The Centric brand brake rotor (Made in China) from Rockauto.com had undercut threads; I’ve had to obtain M10X1.25 tap to finish the threads.

As a result, 2.5 hour job ended up being 4 hour job but I’ve got it done!

Two bolts at the front were the jacking bolts!

The hub-saver monster bolt



Finished work

Pauls94accord

Nice! I plan on doing this to my 94 accord very soon...maybe this weekend if I have time. I got all four rotors and pads through amazon and hopefully it will go smoothly. There is a youtube video of the procedure in case I get in trouble.