Rotors

Like these guys?



Yeah, just like that, not nearly as productive though!

We all got off on tangents and didn't answer this.

Easiest and quickest way I've ever done this is very simple...

When you remove the rotor assembly from the spindle, you take the nut and outer bearing off. Then you put the nut back on the spindle a few turns and pull the spindle towards you and catch the inner bearing on the nut. A quick yank and the bearing and seal are sitting on the spindle and the bare rotor is in your hands.

Great tip! I wasn't aware of that trick.
 
I'll top ya on that, my Jr. High metal shop teacher... well lets just say he wore a tie, had too, he's a teacher, but the lower part was tucked into his shirt below the tie clasp and he was wearing a buttoned up shop coat, but one kid that wasn't in the know questioned him about his tie (smartazz) to which all the rest of us that were "In the know" turned our heads and stare'd at the kid that would dare question this shop teacher. His question was never answered and we moved on so to say, we in the know knew that this shop teacher taught shop at the State Prison in the summer off season. LOL

And speaking of shop coats we had to have one, think we had to even pay for them IIRC.

.

Well... Let me tell you this one...

The vocational school was attached to a rough inner city school. Walking distance to the projects (called brick city).

We had to take classes in the academic part of the school and the academic only kids didn't spend a lot of time in the "tech" building unless they were up to no good.

Two guys came over to fight, possibly figuring that no one would interfere. Very, very wrong... So these two guys started beating on each other and it was a pretty fierce battle. Three of the teachers, including the one mentioned in the tie episode came over. My shop teacher, a vet from WWII and Korea, said "Let them go for a bit and get it over" and they backed off... It went for a little and suddenly got one sided, so the teachers stepped in. My teacher was closest to the guy getting beat down and he grabbed him while the other two grabbed the victor.

The guy winning was done, but the guy getting beat wasn't liking giving up at all and turned on my shop teacher... who promptly tossed his butt against the locker and held him off the ground, feet dangling. Now this guy was a senior, and not a small guy... He realized things had just gone from bad to worse and he wasn't dealing with some pissed off kid, so he calmed down really fast and my teacher let him down.

Now this wouldn't be all that impressive.. Six foot tall marine vet against a high school senior... except for one thing. He had broken one arm and was in a cast from his hand all the way up to his shoulder. He did this all with one hand. That impressed us.

OK, C body content/coincidence

Another teacher on the academic side (English teacher) was also in the Marine reserve during WWII. She was the mother of the guy I bought my 300 from... He (the PO) also taught electrical shop in Auburn maximum security prison for a year or two!
 
You have a beautiful daughter... so allow me to try to help prevent the eventual prosthetic eyeball.

A wire wheel is one of the MOST dangerous tools you are likely to use on a car project. The wires break off and sling with much greater force than you may imagine. It is extremely common for someone to pull a full length piece of wire from under their skin at the end of a day using one. I would recommend safety glasses/googles AND a full face shield, and perhaps some more appropriate clothing and working a little higher off the ground (low bench or table). While it is true that the faster you turn the wheel the more force it generates, folks don't always appreciate how much potential is still there at low speeds.

Very cool that you and her are involved in this together. :thumbsup:

Why not just buy new one piece replacement rotors and new high quality bearings and seals and this way you know everything is new and you can spend your valuable time on other restoration work. I am pretty sure that I have some new old replacement stock rotors if you can't find them.

As noted above, safety goggles are a must. One of those little wire pieces can end up in your eye.
I agree with the danger of wire wheels, I have pulled many strands from my clothes and some that have stuck in my stomach.
 
Rotors cleaned up after a bath in the evaporust and getting turned tomorrow. (pic below).
If enough meat....gained some more experience and saved some $.
If not....will be buying some rotors.

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Hi
 
Well...in the words of Jeff Spicoli on “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”...Bummer dude. Rotors with rust removed, turned and evened up on each side makes it out of spec. Below 1.20 (and even 1.19). It had too much pitting frankly on the backside. Will be purchasing a replacement set. On the bright side - it looked good when done, my daughter and I worked on it together, and we learned how everything went together (and apart). Now onto some yard work....the hunt for rotors.
 
How much smaller? Reality is that rotors have gotten turned slightly undersize for years with no harmful effects. If you are only .010 under, geez... I'd say that they'd still be as good (if not better) than new off shore sourced replacements. Of course, that's just my opinion....
 
How much smaller? Reality is that rotors have gotten turned slightly undersize for years with no harmful effects. If you are only .010 under, geez... I'd say that they'd still be as good (if not better) than new off shore sourced replacements. Of course, that's just my opinion....

1.17 and 1.19. I was looking at it from a legal “what if” POV where as 1.19 is legal min for a 1.25” w rotor. Yes - could use them temporarily for now until I get a new set as this will likely be a summer driver and weekend cruiser....not a lot of driving when it hits the road. I forgot to mention the good news that they (O’Reily’s) threw in a new set of timken bearing/seals as they thought they had ruined the set on it when turning the rotors....which do look damned good.
 
1.17 and 1.19. I was looking at it from a legal “what if” POV where as 1.19 is legal min for a 1.25” w rotor. Yes - could use them temporarily for now until I get a new set as this will likely be a summer driver and weekend cruiser....not a lot of driving when it hits the road. I forgot to mention the good news that they (O’Reily’s) threw in a new set of timken bearing/seals as they thought they had ruined the set on it when turning the rotors....which do look damned good.
What did they do that they thought the bearings were ruined? Turn the rotors with them installed?
 
Embarrassed to say ....yeah.....the guy suggested leaving them on to fit the lathe (rod) better. If it didn’t fit correctly they would take it off. Somewhere in that process they ruined the seal. While at it they decided to replace both seal and bearing as a set. I don’t know what they use for a brake lathe...but I know the manager was not happy with his technician. Anyway - lesson learned.
 
Embarrassed to say ....yeah.....the guy suggested leaving them on to fit the lathe (rod) better. If it didn’t fit correctly they would take it off. Somewhere in that process they ruined the seal. While at it they decided to replace both seal and bearing as a set. I don’t know what they use for a brake lathe...but I know the manager was not happy with his technician. Anyway - lesson learned.
That's nuts... :realcrazy:

FWIW, and not worth much after the fact, a skilled and careful cut may have cleaned them with a lot more meat available. The dumbass who set the lathe wasn't the right guy.

For anyone else thinking about trying this, work out getting them turned on the car. The on car lathes can do a superior job AND tend to remove less material doing it... when operated by a non-idiot.

More food for thought... stopped by a chain parts store on my way home a while back... asked for a length of 3/8 steel line. The series of counter jockeys asked what it was for... "replacing a fuel line"... they all continued to assure me they had no such thing, but I really wanted to finish the job, so I educated them vs my usual walk out in disgust. After repeatedly informing them they had an entire rack of steel line in the back, in fractional sizes and with fittings and flares already in place, they finally allowed me to show them. As I walked up to the rack and selected my line, one of them exclaimed "That's a brake line, you can't use that for fuel!"...:BangHead: You can read my reply in the bubble above this :mad:... I shared this to give you a moment to think about who was likely to be qualified to measure, let alone cut, a rotor at the local chain parts store.
 
Yes. Lessons learn for sure.

I can’t remember the last time I had rotors turned as I usually just replace them on my other cars. I got caught up to reuse, experience of fixing up and saving a buck....but in the end....did I really save a buck? Not really - handed off and it’s the luck of the draw of who is available at the time in the store. But like I said before- some good did come out of it via going through it. my shared experiences is also for the next guy who considers it.
1. If you drop it off find out who will be doing it.
2. They don’t need the bearings to turn them.
3. If you can obtain new rotors - go for it.
4. Use Timken bearings if possible. Mine had 8121-S.

thx guys.
 
For anyone else thinking about trying this, work out getting them turned on the car. The on car lathes can do a superior job AND tend to remove less material doing it... when operated by a non-idiot.

I don't know if there even is anyone around this area doing that anymore. Very, very few places turning rotors. My favorite NAPA (well it used to be when my buddy worked there) stopped because the mess of doing a couple a month didn't justify the floor space taken up by the lathe. Better to sell new or send to the main store for the work.

More food for thought... stopped by a chain parts store on my way home a while back... asked for a length of 3/8 steel line. The series of counter jockeys asked what it was for... "replacing a fuel line"... they all continued to assure me they had no such thing, but I really wanted to finish the job, so I educated them vs my usual walk out in disgust. After repeatedly informing them they had an entire rack of steel line in the back, in fractional sizes and with fittings and flares already in place, they finally allowed me to show them. As I walked up to the rack and selected my line, one of them exclaimed "That's a brake line, you can't use that for fuel!"...:BangHead: You can read my reply in the bubble above this :mad:... I shared this to give you a moment to think about who was likely to be qualified to measure, let alone cut, a rotor at the local chain parts store.

The clerk at the local O'Reilly's didn't understand the expansion plug I needed for a 340 oil pump. Try as I may, he wanted to order a complete pump... and he actually did... even though I kept repeating just this simple expansion plug... "Don't you have 11/16 expansion plugs?" Couldn't even look one up, didn't know what it was, even though I had the old one. It was pathetic. Said the new one would be in tomorrow.. and it would be $48 or something like that. I said "you mean 48 cents, right?" That was my third and last trip with similar results into that store. The local Advance Auto is actually decent and in comparison, heads above.... But this is why Amazon brings me most of my parts these days.
 
I think with most of the auto part stores now hire bodies to fill positions. It use to be all gear heads in auto part stores
 
I think with most of the auto part stores now hire bodies to fill positions. It use to be all gear heads in auto part stores
As the 80's turned into the 90's the chain parts stores started buying and/or developing software. Like so many other industries, they all secretly hoped and believed they could replace expensive and hard to find knowledgeable staff with McD's level help. As time has passed, finding a true parts guy in an aftermarket store is near impossible... and I'd bet that they never achieved the increased profits from the change either.

Fun facts, the old guys used to write notes in their catalogs... all of the new systems I know of have a place where notes can be entered, but as I understand it, those get uploaded to the home office where they seem to do nothing with them. I recall pages of handwritten notes in a bearing catalog noting the seal, inner and outer numbers matched for unlisted combinations found as trailer bearings were figured out for some poor sap stuck with only the sad remains to figure out replacements from. Now days, the counter person will happily let you know they can't do anything for you without the computer. Year, Make, Model... doesn't come up... need a new trailer.
 
For those looking to replace bearings/seals for the rotors...69-72 set up.....this is what came off my existing KH set up with the 11.75 X1.25 rotors.
  • Inner bearings: Timken LM 67048.
  • Inner oil seal: 8121-S. (I had a Timken brand on one rotor and National brand on other).
  • Outer bearing: Timken LM 11949 - Cup (RACE?) LM 11910 if needed
Note that OREILLY will carry “National”. Summit will carry Timken.

In comparing the two - the National brand had correct openings and dimensions...but the roller bearings and metal didn’t seem to have the same “umph” as the original. I noticed a weight difference too......which makes me that there is a difference in the metal density.

One last note - my set is stamped “made in USA”. I did see online that some TIMKEN may also be made in China too. Not sure if there is the same density difference.
 
For those looking to replace bearings/seals for the rotors...69-72 set up.....this is what came off my existing KH set up with the 11.75 X1.25 rotors.
  • Inner bearings: Timken LM 67048.
  • Inner oil seal: 8121-S. (I had a Timken brand on one rotor and National brand on other).
  • Outer bearing: Timken LM 11949 - Cup (RACE?) LM 11910 if needed
Note that OREILLY will carry “National”. Summit will carry Timken.

In comparing the two - the National brand had correct openings and dimensions...but the roller bearings and metal didn’t seem to have the same “umph” as the original. I noticed a weight difference too......which makes me that there is a difference in the metal density.

One last note - my set is stamped “made in USA”. I did see online that some TIMKEN may also be made in China too. Not sure if there is the same density difference.
None of the bearing manufacturers seem to be what they were years ago...
 
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