Last week I removed the rotors, which overall went smoothly except for the outer retaining ring inside the manual locking hub. The first one took me 45 minutes to remove (no exaggeration) and the second about 20 (once I figured out what to do). From what I understand, this is typical if you don't have the exact right tools (e.g., dental picks or the fingers of a Lilliputian). I ended up using surgical tweezers that have tiny teeth on the end for gripping. After that, everything was cake. Out came the two retaining rings, the clutch assembly, two lock nuts, a lock washer, and the outer bearings. Once I popped the rotor off, I removed the seal and the inner bearings. The grease inside was a yellow/black mixture, but it didn't smell burned and the Timken bearings spun smoothly once cleaned with odorless mineral spirits.
The previous owner had not replaced the front brake pads for about 53 years, so they were ground down to about 1/8" thick (see left), which carved deep grooves into the rotor surfaces, front and back. I wasn't sure if the rotors could be shaved smooth, but the guys at Brake Masters did a great job for just ten bucks a rotor. They look like new.I was seriously considering a rotor upgrade, perhaps dimpled and slotted rotors for gas dispersal, but several forum threads on IFSJA.org made it clear that a better investment for stoping is an upgrade in calipers and pads. I've bought the larger calipers for a mid-80s K20 Suburban and carbon metallic pads. I also have the extended brake lines that came with my BJ'S Off Road lift kit (bjsoffroad.com). With smoothed rotors, better brake pades, and larger-piston calipers, I think the new brake system is going to work quite well, especially in light of the larger tires (31's or 33's for which I'm in the market).
I also had to replace a lug on the right front hub. I spayed in multiple times PB Blaster penetrating oil to facilitate removal. Then I put my BFH on the stubby lug and then hit it with a hammer several times (warning: wear ear protection). It popped out on the fifth hit. When I get ready to put the tire back on, I'm going to have to put a little extra care in attaching the lug nut to the new lug to make sure it seats fully in the wheel hub housing (it's about 1/8" short of being fully seated).
I fully scrubbed all of the inner hub components and the inside of each hub itself with mineral spirits and an old toothbrush, inside an old plastic tub (what I refer to as my 'cleaning station'). I used about a gallon of the spirits, which worked quite well. Once cleaned, I took this time to scrub the rust off of the hub assembly using a
drill bit with wire brush attached in my cordless drill. This wasn't about getting the thing polished, just for cutting down on the mild rust build up. After everything was dried and wiped clean, I greased all of the components and the front spindles with Lucas Oil's Red 'N Tacky #2 bearing grease (FYI, it ain't red--it's pinkish purple).I put in the regreased inner bearing and new seal on each rotor, hammering them flush with the back of the inner rotor assembly with a small hardwood block. At $3.97 each for new Timken seals from Auto Zone, I saw little reason to reuse the old seals; besides, I'd damaged mine slightly getting them out (too cheap to buy a seal puller--I'm tired of buying tools I'm only going to use once or twice a year).
Reassembling the second rotor took about twenty minutes total. However, the first one took me about an hour an a half because of a locknut issue. I greased the front left spindle and put on the rotor assembly, the outer bearing, and the first locknut. Unfortunately, I thought I had the nut threaded properly, but I didn't, so I mashed the first full revolution of the threads on the spindle. Amateur/stupid mistake, I'm sure (and not one I repeated on the second hub/rotor install). After reworking the nut and threads to guide smoothly and securely, I added the lock washer and second locknut (torquing it to 50-60 ft-lbs.). Then I reinstalled the clutch assembly, the two snap rings (after grinding the tips of the outer snap ring for easier removal next time, on the advice of an IFSJA.org member). So the rotors are back on and ready for calipers.
Next up on my plate is the extended brake lines front and back, which might be a bit difficult because the rear hard brake lines are frozen. I'll probably have to cut them off so that I can use a socket to remove them from the drum housing safely. We'll see.
