Just bought a 1980 yota and am doing a brake job because the calipers were frozen up and I am having trouble getting the rotors off. I have removed the spring clip on the splined axle shaft and have taken all the fastners off to the hub assm. I have tried wedges between the hub and cast rotor assm. and nothing seems to give. Is it really that stuck or am I missing something? By the way this is my first post so I am curious about how this is going to work.

 

have you removed the 54mm nuts?

 

54 mm nuts? What 54mm nuts would that be?

 

just finished a brake job a few hours ago. behind the housing for the locking hub there are two spindle nuts, 54 mm, that have to be removed. between the two nuts is a thin plate that is bent around the nuts to keep them from backing off. pound the staked ends of the plate clear with a flat head screwdriver and using the same driver spin the spindle nuts off. Careful not to screw up the threads on the spindle or the nuts. When you remove the rotor and wheel assembly the outer bearing is going to fall out along with the thrust plate that sits between it and the spindle nuts.

 

so these nuts are on the back side of the rotors.

 

54 mm seems kind of big.

 

Just did the same job a couple of days ago. They're large 54mm nuts, but they're really thin. Once you flatten out the retainer sleeve thingy, you can put a flathead screwdriver into the notch on the 54mm nut. Gently hammer the screwdriver until the nut unscrews. (or you can buy the special tool, but the screwdriver works just as well) Once you get the first nut off, remove the retainer sleeve thingy, and unscrew the second 54mm nut the same way you did the first.

 

They're accessible from the front of the rotor, you just need to take the hub off first.

 

I have taken the part off that is used to lock the hubs in. Beneath that is the portion of the hub that is fastened to the rotor/hub by 6 studs. I then removed the external snap ring on the spline and the 6 fasteners that held the next portion of the hub in the stack. Maybe the hub (the part that looks kind of like a clover leaf) is stuck onto the brake rotor?

 

So you haven't got the hub body off yet? The shiny main part of the hub. You have to remove that, there are cone washers holding it on, they were behind the 6 nuts you took off.

 

The snap ring doesn't have to come off to get the hub off and, from experience, you may have sprung the snap ring to the point of damage beyond use. There are a couple of threads on this site that have good pics of the hub pull. I will see if I can track them down and post the link for you. The disk is held on by 6 bolts coming from the back side into the hub.

 

Get yourself a factory service manual, or at least a chiltons.

You don't understand how a full floating set up works. The brake rotor is bolted to the hub, which is bolted to the spindle, etc etc. You have to remove the hub (not the outer locking hub, the hub the bearings support) then you can remove the rotor from the hub.

It is pretty difficult to explain without pics, and since you don't know how its put together, you may not get it. Find a repair manual.

 

Your right, I don't know how a full floating set works and it is tough to figure out when its still assembled. If I had an assembly drawing no problem. Sounds like I need to find the nut holding the hub to the axle. I will look for pics on the website. Another question is if the rotors are pretty smooth, would you even worry about getting them turned?

 

I am guessing it is polite to complete a thread. I could not access the two 54 mm nuts because the locking hub assm. was rusted onto bearing hub assm. by the cone washers. Cant believe they were holding that strong. Thanks for the help. Yotatech is going to be a great tool. Any leads on a factory service manual for a 1980 4x4?