RTH - Problem removing rear rotor

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SanDiegoCruiser

SanDiegoCruiser

10 Year
Joined
Sep 14, 2011
Threads
63
Messages
1,244
Location
San Diego
Trying to fix broken stud. Rear rotor is loose. Something feels like it is preventing the rotor from being removed. It feels like the parking brake is catching the inside of the rotor. does anyone have any ideas how to remove the rotor? The rotor is loose and can be moved with our hands.
 
from what i remember aren't there two threaded holes on the rotor maybe 12mm bolt size? you just thread some bolts on and it pushes the rotor off. again i think it was the rear rotor it's been a while since i had it off.
 
Yeah, we tried that. It feels like something is binding at the top and we cannot remove it.
 
To add, I'm working with Craig above... there is a spring behind the rotor that has come loose. I can see it laying inside there. It feels like the emergency brake is maybe expanding against the inside of the rotor. We have disconnected the emergency brake and when you wiggle the rotor you can see the ebrake on the back side move with it.
 
i feel for you guys. pads are probably catching on the wear lip. i had the two bolts that hold the parking brake lever assembly loosen and fall off into the rotor/pad area braking apart my brake pads and ruining/gouging the inside rotor surface. i had a hell of a time removing the rotor also.
 
That sounds like what the problem is. How did you break the pads inside?
 
i was on a trip and did not have any tools when it first started making a noise. both of the bolts rolled around in the rotor/drum and one got jammed between the pad and inside drum and cracked the pad surface, not the actual metal part of the pad. luckily there wasn't too much damage and i only had to replace the pads. the gouge in the drum didn't bother me too much because it's only for the parking brake. i found 2 bolts i had laying around that were the same size, put threadlocker on them and tightened that parking brake lever assembly(that the cable attaches to) back down. i'm thinking about putting threadlocker on the other side now that i see it happening to someone else.
 
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did you back off the p-brake adjuster? there is a star wheel tht you can access throught the holes in the rotor(not the wheel stud holes). there is for whatever reason a paper gasket type thing that covers the holes on the inside, just poke through wit a screwdriver. if its backed off as far as it will go get 2 pry bars and work it of a little bit at a time.
 
I am in the middle of something similar. I used two bolts to push the rotor off, but it isn't coming all the way off, and can't figure out how to release the e brake? Pulled the rubber gromet on the hole, but can't see behind the rotor with a flashlight so I have no idea what I am trying to do.
Any ideas?
 
bigredmachine said:
did you back off the p-brake adjuster? there is a star wheel tht you can access throught the holes in the rotor(not the wheel stud holes). there is for whatever reason a paper gasket type thing that covers the holes on the inside, just poke through wit a screwdriver. if its backed off as far as it will go get 2 pry bars and work it of a little bit at a time.
Click to expand...
This was the trick... The problems were not obvious and it took us almost a little over four hours to figure out where the Star wheel was. :doh:.... First, there was no paper behind the rubber gromet to bust through and we spent quite a while looking for it. The We kept looking through the hole looking for this star shaped adjuster. And there was nothing there either. I had to use the two screws to pull the rotor out enough to look in from the back side to locate it. It was about 1-1.5" to the right of the hole. Basically I had to stick a flat tip screw driver in at almost a 30 degree angle to get to it. Nothing in any write ups about that so I am not sure if that is unusual. But, once I was able to locate it and adjust it (rotate it in the down direction until it stops) everything came right off and we had it fixed and all put back together in about 20 min. It was a good learning experience. The peices that were loose in there was the pin, spring, and two retaining plates for one of the two ebrake assemblies.


corleykj said:
I am in the middle of something similar. I used two bolts to push the rotor off, but it isn't coming all the way off, and can't figure out how to release the e brake? Pulled the rubber gromet on the hole, but can't see behind the rotor with a flashlight so I have no idea what I am trying to do.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
It is the star shaped screw. IIf you can pull it out enough to see inside there with a flashlight, look towards the center bottom and you will see it on a rod. Get a long flat head screw driver and insert it in there until you align the srew driver with the adjuster. Remember that location. Put the hub back to normal position, insert screw driver to needed location and using meathod of feeling, start turning the adjuster down until it wont turn any longer. Then pull hub off.

I think it was another thread we found where Spresso and RobRed talked about this and so they were a huge help. I kept reading the FSM and looking and not finding anything through that stupid hole...

Hopefully some one else will get help from this. It was definately a learning experience for me....:beer:
 
Mxndrnks said:
This was the trick... The problems were not obvious and it took us almost a little over four hours to figure out where the Star wheel was. :doh:.... First, there was no paper behind the rubber gromet to bust through and we spent quite a while looking for it. The We kept looking through the hole looking for this star shaped adjuster. And there was nothing there either. I had to use the two screws to pull the rotor out enough to look in from the back side to locate it. It was about 1-1.5" to the right of the hole. Basically I had to stick a flat tip screw driver in at almost a 30 degree angle to get to it. Nothing in any write ups about that so I am not sure if that is unusual. But, once I was able to locate it and adjust it (rotate it in the down direction until it stops) everything came right off and we had it fixed and all put back together in about 20 min. It was a good learning experience. The peices that were loose in there was the pin, spring, and two retaining plates for one of the two ebrake assemblies.


It is the star shaped screw. IIf you can pull it out enough to see inside there with a flashlight, look towards the center bottom and you will see it on a rod. Get a long flat head screw driver and insert it in there until you align the srew driver with the adjuster. Remember that location. Put the hub back to normal position, insert screw driver to needed location and using meathod of feeling, start turning the adjuster down until it wont turn any longer. Then pull hub off.

I think it was another thread we found where Spresso and RobRed talked about this and so they were a huge help. I kept reading the FSM and looking and not finding anything through that stupid hole...

Hopefully some one else will get help from this. It was definately a learning experience for me....:beer:
Click to expand...



the starwheel in in how toyota has their p-brake adjusted. some have the paper covering the hole, some dont. i just figgured i would mention it. sounds like your going to need new spring cups for the p-brake shoes, common item that will brake when the rotor is forced off. shound be about 3$ per at any dealership. sounds like its time for one or two of these :beer::beer:
 
bigredmachine said:
the starwheel in in how toyota has their p-brake adjusted. some have the paper covering the hole, some dont. i just figgured i would mention it. sounds like your going to need new spring cups for the p-brake shoes, common item that will brake when the rotor is forced off. shound be about 3$ per at any dealership. sounds like its time for one or two of these :beer::beer:
Click to expand...

Thanks for mentioning it. It was definitely helpful! It just had us scratching out heads.... I couldnt figure out why I wasnt finding the adjuster everyone including the FSM talked about. Was it directly behind the hole or off to the side for you?

Everything went back together just fine and nothing was broken other than the stud we started with! I had a spare in my truck and we had everything put back together just fine. Craig had about 1" clear to get in his garage with the new 866 springs... He wasnt looking forward to telling the wife that modifying the truck was going to lead to modifying the garage door...LOL!
 
it should be i the exploded view of the rear brakes in the fsm, first page of that section. im pretty sure that it is called a star adjuster in the fsm, but i dont remember what toyota calles it. some times the star is dead center sometimes a little forward, some times a little back, but where ever the location is on one side(forward, canter, or back) its the same on the other side. as im sure you ended up doing all ya have to do is just rotate the hole in the rotor to line up with the adjuster.
 
Thanks everyone for the help today. Sometimes it is a painful learning process working on these cruisers!

Craig
 
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