Gevo

Hi everyone... Here is my most recent lesson learned...

To make it short for those who don't like a story... Check the thickness of your rotors before you start your break job!

I ordered a whole bunch of front end suspension, axle and steering parts to renew my front end. Amongst them the front rotors and pads. I did a bunch of research and decided to try something new, a well priced alternative to EBC and the other high cost brands. I went with Centric Parts. The quality and all that seemed fine, but the fit was a problem. I have never had the problem where the rotors I got were of the wrong thickness, and so I didn't check until I ran into the problem of my calipers not fitting on the rotor! Turns out the spec is between 0.787 and 0.707 inches, the calipers that Centric sent were 1.0 inches.

Their website asked if the vehicle was before 5/91 or after, mine is August so i selected the appropriate one, i wonder if that was their mistake? Everywhere else I looked for these rotors was straight forward and there was no question about month of the vehicle. Anyway... the rest of the work went well.

Second lesson learned.... These cars require the removal of the wheel bearing assembly and at least one of the bearings for a rotor change.... I did not find the FSM section about the wheel bearings and rotor work, and I thought, oh well I've done rotor swap before that should be the least of my worries. So I wasn't prepared for the bearing work and that 54mm axle nut, and the re-assembly /adjustment of the bearing load.... oops! Before i found out the rotor wasn't gonna work I thought, ok, I'll do a hack job of getting the bearing back together for a few days until I get a spring scale and 54mm socket and adjust it properly...

So, here is how my day went in pictures.

The new parts (minus the break items). Plan was to do right side first since there was some clicking noise everytime I would break a little hard.

The parts.
Moog inner and outter tie rods (with grease fittings)
Moog ball joints (with grease fittings)
Cardone remand CV axle
Monroe shock absorber (got old sensatrac ones to last until i do a small suspension lift)
Centric rotors (fail)
Centric pads


Removed caliper and plugged break line.


Remove more things.


Use jack to spread control arms to remove ball joints. Also remove CV axle


This part I wasn't prepared for !


This pic is just before I found out the rotor is no good!Installation of all other parts went well, minus the hack job of the 54mm nut which makes me cringe everytime I remember it.




I left it that way and quickly ordered new 54mm nuts and the correct tools for the job. I'll finish it Tuesday night.

learn from my mistakes!!!

cheers