Real Time Help - Rear rotor shattered (1 Viewer)

[stayalert]

1994 with rear disc brakes. 3/4 mile from home....snap crunch grind gobble gobble chew scrape rub..... removed wheel, removed broken bits, "luckily" the pads where tenaciously holding a pad sized piece of rotor so no worry of losing brakes due to spitting out piston on that wheel.....Anyhow the mounting (flange?) for the caliper (two bolts hold caliper to this "flange" is bent back so caliper if reinstalled will not be square to rotor. Is this "flange" a replaceable part? Does the mangled dust shield get removed from the rear or do I have to remove all of the E-brake parts to get to that? currently assembling list of parts needed....this is my daily driver and I need to be ing again ASAP

Any helpful info. encouragement etc. well recieved.....

Rob "stayalert" M
Norwich VT

 

[Doc]

How the hell does a rotor shatter?

 

[Ebag333]

I suppose you could shatter a rotor. By dousing it in extreme heat, the freezing it rapidly, then hitting it very hard.



Stayalert: I think pictures are needed for this one as your terminology seems to be off.

 

[stayalert]

no camera at home this moment. shaterred = broken in many pieces. rotor = disk brake component that caliper squeezes pads against to provide stoppage when operator applies pressure to large foot pedal left of accelerator pedal (often reffered to as the brake pedal.)

FSM shows this mounting flange but at first pass through brakes and axles sections I see no exploded diagram showing if this mounting flange is replaceble or not.

I don't know how my rotor shattered but can tell you the crack snap, bang and immediately subsequet grinding and crunkling noises where very unpleasant. As the pieces of rotor became trapped in the rotating wheel they bent the dust cover and put enough force on the caliper to bend it away from its normal (90 degree) oreintation to the rotor. for me for you

 

[96r50]

That mounting flange is part of the parking brake backing plate which appears to be a discontinued part. I would start looking in the parting out section. Good luck!

BTW, I just ordered new rear rotors and pads because of this thread (one of the mechanics commented on how thin the rotors were last time I turned them and mentioned the chance of them cracking)

 

[stayalert]

Thanks Adam,

I've been slowely (between rain squalls) removing pieces to get better handle on the severity of the damage. Currently it looks as though I can coax the misalligned flange back into place. I would descibe it as askew and not creased so I'm going to see if I can get satisfactory results doing that... as for the dust shield I'll be wailing/pulling/tugging/pushing on that untall I can get a reasonable fit. One silver lining is that I redid the ebrake components about 3 years ago so the fasteners back there are all pretty compliant (ie they were reassembled with antisieze where apporpriate and now I can remove them without snapping them.

Thanks for your commnets/suggestions.

 

[knorrena]

I for one would really like to see a pic.

 

[jamisobe]

I for one would really like to see a pic.

I second the motion. What about taking a pic with your cell phone and then sending it to your email??

 

[stayalert]

To satisfy your thirst for carnage photos I will attempt to get some. Some pieces are missing as the friendly Tacoma owner who stopped to offer assistance picked a piece of the disk up and determinuing it was still quite hot - threw it into the puckerbrush at the roadside. I don't have a cell phone.

Anyone have a right rear dust shield and mounting flange I could buy?????

 

[stayalert]

here you are you dark hearted blood thirsty bastidges!

I surmise pieces of the broken rotor got jammed as the wheel rotated. having nowhere to go they pushed on the caliper hard enough to bend the mounting flange and wanging the dust shield. The flange and dust shield are shown midway through my efforts at coaxing things back into shape.
edit - top photo shows intach left side, bottom photo shows damaged side. small bottle jack was used to pressure the flange back into position, rear shock removed for improved access.

 

[Doc]

Dude, that's F'd up.

 

[knorrena]

You know there are better ways to obtain wheel spacers!

Jeez, I cant even imagine what might have caused that. Maybe something got caught between the hub and the rotor on a previous brake job?

 

[Ebag333]

here you are you dark hearted blood thirsty bastidges!

I surmise pieces of the broken rotor got jammed as the wheel rotated. having nowhere to go they pushed on the caliper hard enough to bend the mounting flange and wanging the dust shield. The flange and dust shield are shown midway through my efforts at coaxing things back into shape.
edit - top photo shows intach left side, bottom photo shows damaged side. small bottle jack was used to pressure the flange back into position, rear shock removed for improved access.

Judging by your "intact" left side, you ran that rotor down to WAY thinner then spec (16 mm or .039 in according to my '96 FSM). Your "intact" left size also looks pretty well grooved.

What it looks like is you ran it way down and got it real hot.

You need to completely R&R both sides. When I chewed up one rotor and caliper (thanks to a cheap aftermarket pad breaking in half) cdan recommended 2 new rotors and 2 new calipers. You didn't show the caliper so yours may be good...but if I were in your shoes I'd probably replace both. Doesn't really hurt anyway considering the age of them. At the very least I would completely rebuild both.

Since you had bits flying around, you may also need to R&R the parking brake for that side.

I would check everything very carefully, make sure there's no weak spots or damage to any of the brake lines in that area. It may be worth replacing the soft line on that side as a weak spot in the brake line may not show up for a long time.

I would also R&R your rear axles as you probably generated a lot of heat isn't real good for the grease/componants. Plus they kinda look like they haven't been touched in a while....

I would (and did) personally buy everything from cdan. The cost for 2 new rotors, 2 new calipers, and 2 new sets of brake pads was about the same cost as what Les Schwab wanted for installing their aftermarket equip...and about twice as beefy. The total came to around $500-550 IIRC, but I'd get a quote direct from cdan. Plus he can also recommend any other PM to do while you're in the area.




Dan's dogs will eat good this month, but get it done right the first time and you won't have to go back and do it again.

 

[cruiserdan]

That mounting flange is part of the parking brake backing plate which appears to be a discontinued part.

The flange is indeed incorporated in the backing plate but the plate is not discontinued. It ain't cheap though, list $502.23..........


Due to the critical nature of the caliper-rotor interface I would not attempt to straighten the backing plate. I would repalce it with a new one or a good used one. Do be sure to get a 93-94 plate as they are not the same as the 95-97 plates.

D-

 

[plumber3dad]

Once you remove the emergency brake shoes and springs you should be able to access the fasteners for the dust/ splash shield and then the bolts for the caliper mounting plate.

 

[plumber3dad]

Just saw a Stable of 80s in classifieds getting parted out. Screen name IRBIS ( I think)

 

[stayalert]

Spent a few hours on it yesterday. Am ~90% finished on replacement of both sides of rotors and calipers. on the failed side the ABS sensor was also damaged as well as the previously mentioned bracket/backing plate.

Time being one of the hurdles to get this rig running I opted to source parts locally and after ~2.5 hours of driving secured a used braket/backing plate assembly, ABS sensor, rotors and calipers. I had previously ordered the calipers and was waiting for their arrival when the failure occured. I agree I went too long with this set of rotors. I was really close to getting away with it (calipers were in transit - was planning a less involved version of this work)

Anyhow. The backing plate/bracket assembly was $40 used, the ABS sensor was $50 used.

As for straightening the bent bracket? I tried for a few minutes and rapidly came to the conclusion it wasn't worth it.

Cruiserparts.net in Sullivan, NH & CDan our beloved Shaman at American Toyota, & White river junction Toyota all povided assistance to date.

but most of all "WHAT A GREAT AUDIENCE" (sorry couldn't resist - quote from Neil Young)... you mud bastidges provided some info and verification to my thought process and methodology

I'll provide some more observations later...right now I want to get back into me driveway and giterdone!!!!

Mama's don't let your babies turn into rotor ruiners!

 

[stayalert]

got it done. new calipers& rotors on both sides.

next up....exahust leaks at flange between down pipes and y pipe.....

 

[hj60]

I've seen this a couple of times.

Network Alignment, a shop in downtown Mesa, has a "wall of shame" with various parts damaged by abuse/neglect. They have a rotor in 3 pieces.

Those of you that think a pad slap constitutes a complete brake job need to remember this thread.