TR4/4A TR4A front rotor questions

[tdskip]

Two quick questions if I may;

1) Ever seen a front rotor squared off like this?

2) Any tips on getting the *&$^$#@ rotor off?

 

[swift6]

1. Yes, if a wheel comes off and the rotor meets the pavement. Are those wire wheel hubs?

2. You have to remove the hub. If those are wire wheel adapters, remove those, then you'll see the castellated nut holding the hub on. Remove that just like you would to replace the front hub bearings. Lay it face down and you'll see the heads of the bolts that hold the rotor to the hub. Impact wrench should take 'em right out.

 

[TR3driver]

except there should also be a dust cover revealed when you remove the splined adapters. The castellated nut is under the dust cover.

The dust cover has a hole in the center; in theory you screw a long 10-32 bolt into that hole until it hits the axle and forces the cover off. In practice, the threads tear out of the cover instead, and I usually wind up using a big lag screw to force it off.

Or stab it with a screwdriver

 

[tdskip]

Hi Shawn - so the wheel came off huh? Cool! Does that count as patina?

Yes, these are wire wheel hubs.

I'm having a tough time getting the adapters off. I've hit them with PB Blaster a couple times now but no luck.

 

[M_Pied_Lourd]

Impact wrench will get em off.

Cheers,
M. Pied Lourd

 

[TR3driver]

Or sit that flat spot back on the ground, and stand on the wrench

The good news is that front studs are relatively cheap and easy to replace. It's no big deal if you twist one (or all) of them off.

 

[tdskip]

Thanks guys

 

[swift6]

Hi Shawn - so the wheel came off huh? Cool! Does that count as patina?

Yes, these are wire wheel hubs.

I'm having a tough time getting the adapters off. I've hit them with PB Blaster a couple times now but no luck.

From just that photo, I would bet that a wire wheel wasn't tightened correctly and came off. Probably at speed, someone got on the brakes, locking that rotor fairly easily without the wheel and tire, and with the weight transfer of trying to slow the car the front end would have definitely dropped and easily could have ground that flat spot on the disc. Not patina, but you could start a "wall of shame" in your shop. BTW, a wall of shame doesn't have to be populated with just your own screw ups, DPO screw ups are perfect fodder for a wall of shame.

Are the wire wheel hubs in good shape? If you plan on keeping the wire wheels, you can either take care in getting them off, or as Randall stated, those studs are pretty easily sourced. If you plan on putting steel wheels, or bolt on alloy wheels, you'll need new longer studs anyway. Turn up the impact wrench and hammer away at it.

 

[TR3driver]

Something else to check is that the adapters are installed on the correct sides of the car. You should have two with left-hand threads and two with right-hand threads.

Normally, the wheels are self-tightening; but if the threads are on the wrong side, they will be self-loosening instead.

However, from the fact you can't get the adapter nuts off, my guess would be that they were what came loose and allowed the rotor to hit the road. The studs are all right-hand threads, which means the ones on the left side of the car tend to be self-loosening. Your car wouldn't be the first to lose a wheel that way! And the DPO probably over-tightened the nuts to be sure it didn't happen again.

(Hint: I was on my way to watch the Apollo-Soyuz launch when it happened to me.)

Even if you don't destroy the studs getting it off, I would check them carefully for thread distortion from over-tightening. Spin a new nut down them without the adapter; if it doesn't spin easily all the way to the bottom, replace the stud. My wire-wheel Stag had a lot of distorted studs when it came to me, likely for the same reason.

 

[martx-5]

Also, make sure that you have the correct wire wheel adapters on the correct side of the car. Left threaded adapter and spinner on the right side...right threaded adapter and spinner on the left side.

 

[HerronScott]

I didn't have the benefit of power or pneumatic tools when I did mine way back when so the following was definitely my friend for all those hard to remove nuts and screws.

Impact driver

I think that I bought it first for the screws that hold the rear brake drums on.

Scott

 

[Andrew Mace]

1) Ever seen a front rotor squared off like this?

I once had a Ford Explorer with a LF rotor that looked VERY MUCH like that! Not a pleasant situation for the then-wife, who was driving it at the time. Fortunately no one was hurt except in the wallet.