Rear Rotor Removal - Help needed

MoreTorque06 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:42 pm

I'm finally trying to get my wheel sensor problem fixed and want to take a peek with the rear rotors off.

For the life of me I cannot get the rear rotors off no matter what I hit or bang on. Not even a hair of movement. Sprayed the hub area up with liquid wrench and went at it with a BFH. Still nothin... Yes... the caliper is off.

I did some searching and found that the star wheel needs to be moved. How far should the adjustment star wheel have to be turned to get them off? Which way should it be moved? Teeth going up or teeth being pulled down?

Any advice?

DGM635csi · **Posted:** Tue Apr 28, 2009 6:55 pm

Just another thing to check, make sure your parking brake is not applied, this will hold the rotors on the hub. Also, make sure you spray oil around the holes where the wheel studs come through the rotor. I have removed rear rotors on many vehicles, and I have never had to adjust or remove the star wheel to remove the rotors. Only on vehicles with worn rear drum brakes, not disk brakes with parking drums. The star wheel adjusts how tightly the inner parking brake drum shoes sit against the inside of the brake rotor, but they should not be adjusted very tightly since the handbrake is only used for parking and emergencies. I am assuming you are working on your 06 libby.

wingnuts · **Posted:** Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:07 pm

Patience is the key

BFH and lots of penitrating oil. I did the rear brakes on my 07 this past fall and spent half the day just trying to get the rear rotors off. Spraying and pounding, move to the other side, spray and pound, move to the other side, and so on and finally they came off. You have to get that rust broke and it is face rust, not to mention drum parking brakes are the worst thing in the world because they rust up quite badly do to the fact that they are not used much with movment giving them time to rust up.

Just keep working at it, they will come but it will take some time

Albert · **Posted:** Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:12 pm

The drum parking brake is holding the rotor on probably. It looks just like a set of drum brake shoes and it applies pressure to the inside machined surface of the rotor. Back of the adjustment a couple of notches.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Tue Apr 28, 2009 7:21 pm

rotate the star towards the axle , ie: insert brake spoon and pull the handle towards the ground to tighten

the reverse will loosen but you have to hold the adjuster lever away from the star wheel with a thin screwdriver while backing off the star wheel, one of your wife/gf's cuticle/nail trimmer spoon deals works good for holding up the adjuster they usually have EXTRAS anyway

my 03 manual says something about retaining clips on the rotor

however the one time i've had mine off, there was no retaining clip, i just wacked it on either side of the hub of the rotor and off it came

the reinstallation also doesn't mention 'said retaining clips' either :roll:

i'd guesstimate that as much as you've sat there on a bucket foolin with it, that if it had clips on it around one of the studs you'd have noticed them

give'r another wack!

PB while the rotors are warm should suck the PB through the stud holes and help break stuff free

Jeep Dawg · **Posted:** Tue Apr 28, 2009 9:43 pm

Albert wrote:

The drum parking brake is holding the rotor on probably. It looks just like a set of drum brake shoes and it applies pressure to the inside machined surface of the rotor. Back of the adjustment a couple of notches.

YEP probally e-brake shoes are holding it into place and or they are worn out and wedged in and holding the rotor in place. thats what happend to me. I used blow torch and BFH and ALBERT

QuestMan · **Posted:** Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:00 pm

EVEN though you have rear rotors, the emergency brakes are drum brakes, INSIDE the rotors so...........get under your vehicle and back off those star wheels. I had to do the same thing when I replaced the brakes and rotors on mine.

Liberty&Freedom · **Posted:** Sat May 02, 2009 11:41 am

I had the same issue with mine....on my 03.
I'm sure you checked for the retaining clip on the wheel studs.
I got a flat crowbar in behind the rotor and gave a couple bumps and mine came rigtht off.
I tried the BFH and those tricks, but the crowbar popped them right off.

Once they were off, i wire brushed the hub and the interior of the rotor
so the next time might be a little easier.

MoreTorque06 · **Posted:** Mon May 04, 2009 4:16 pm

Holy crap... i've tried everything other than cutting it off! For the heck of it, I tried to get the other side off and it came off no problem at all. Nothing extra needed.

I've hit, pulled, slammed, and cursed... it doesn't move at all. Its been soaking in penetrating oil for a week now and I covered it again today. I've tried gettin a chisel in there and wedging it off... still nothing...

I've turned the star wheel downward as much as it will go.

Arg!

KJ Taz · **Posted:** Mon May 04, 2009 4:29 pm

Do these rotors have the threaded hole in them where you just run a bolt through and it pops out the rotor? I haven't done brakes on mine so I wouldn't know but most vehicles do have that in the middle of the rotor so you can get them off with out a BFH.

Edit for spelling...................

MoreTorque06 · **Posted:** Mon May 04, 2009 4:34 pm

Not that I have seen.

Deffiante · **Joined:** Thu Mar 29, 2012 2:40 pm **Posts:** 1

Here my experience with the problem. Can I just rant for a minute, automotive engineers in general should be shot at sunrise like other criminals of society. I cannot believe that the engineers (yes it must have more than one moron) looked at the rear disc brakes on the jeep and said “I know lets put disc brakes on the back but just for the fun of it lets put drum brakes on the inside for the energy/parking brake, just because. This is by no small measure the most asinine thing on a vehicle every! I cannot honest believe people who can dress themselves and feed themselves, let alone people supposedly have a degree in how to do this stuff thought this was a good idea.
The solution to their stupidity, between the BFH and adjusted wheel crowds here is where I landing. Having change many drum brakes in my life I have the tools and the knowledge to back off the adjuster wheel but as is often the case it didn’t help a bit. The problem I ran into with the BFH is the only place where can get a good outward smack going on is in the caliper space but then in binds across from it. The solution I found with both rear wheels off the ground, taken apart and the front wheels secured I put the Jeep in neutral started it up and popped in and out of reverse thus spinning the rotor. Then apply BFH, spin a little more, BFH repeat say 1000 times with considerable smacking effort and eventually off they come!

99_XC600 · **Posted:** Fri Mar 30, 2012 3:40 pm

I found the trick in get those suckers off is to get the biggest orange dead blow hammer you can find. Just hitting it with a mini sledge or a roofing hammer will do absolutely nothing.

Using this, I've never had a rotor I couldn't get off with a couple of good whacks

http://www.harborfreight.com/4-lb-neon- ... 41800.html

Rear Rotor Removal - Help needed

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