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Had to hammer off old rotors.. now have major front end wobble

S

stephenspann27

NAXJA Forum User
Location
College Station, Tx
:helpme:


So I pulled the rotors of my '89 parts jeep and they came off really easily. I had to beat the ever living $*^$% out of the rotors on my '87 to get them off.. I also had to use a propane torch. I replaced the pads also.

When I finally got my rotors off I saw the zert for the wheel bearings. I had to pump about 20 times before I heard any grease start to pop out around the seal. .. I don't see how this is related.. but I"m mentioning it.

Anyways.. I was thinking that maybe the rotor gotten a little cocked on the hub and that was the problem.. but that doesn't appear to be the case.

I can feel the wobble in the brake pedal.. so the rotor is wobbling with the wheel.. what's the deal?

I don't know of I bent something when I was hammering the old rotors off..
 
Hammering on stuck rotors = hammering on wheel bearing, not good. I've never seen one with a grease fitting?

If you want to get after it with a dial indicator, check the runout of the hub flange. Sure sounds like the bearing's annoyed now.
 
I did use used rotors, but a warped rotor wouldn't cause the the whole front end to shake at 45 mph... I checked the the gap at the rotor and the hub and its within .001... I don't see how I could "bend" something and it cause a wobble..

I did notice that some grease has flown out of the bearing..
 
stephen, remove the rotors you just put on and resurface them... i had a horrible wobble in my front end, and i had to either speed up or slow down, and if i braked during the wobble it got alot worse, i removed my rotors, took them down and got them resurfaced and it fixed my problem, it seriously only costs like 10 dollars to have them resurfaced. i would try that first before you start with something expensive... just my 2 cents and personal expierence

oh and question... those rotors should of had 2 holes on each side with thread's in them... what your suppose to do with a stuck rotor is put a bolt into the holes until you get pressure and bolt them down evenly... it pushes the rotor out pretty easy, food for thought for next time ;)
 
I hope you are right about the resurfacing.. I don't see how anyone could have been driving my parts jeep with rotors that bad...


My rotors don't have the threaded holes your talking about for easy removal.. I wish they did.
 
hmm... i could of swore mine does, its been 6 months since i've actually looked at them, my honda has them... but yea, i seriously just resurfaced them cuz i got an entire shake at i wanna say 48-52 mph, after about 55 is smoothed out and when slowing down from say 60mph, as soon as i'd hit approx 52 mph i'd get that rapid shake again until i got below 45 mph, i went to a mechanic and told him my issue, he told me to bring my rotors down to resurface them cuz that sounds like the issue and it fixed my problem... i would think if you bent something else it would be a consistant vibe and would get worse with speed. is that your case or does it only do it at a certian speed?
 
You may want to clean between the rotor and the hub. If there's a lot of rust accumulated, (especially if you had the rotors stuck on the hub) the rotor may not be seated on the hub causing the wheel and rotor assembly to have excessive runout.

Chuck up a wire wheel in a drill and go to town on the flanges and inside of the rotor hats. Hope this helps.
 
I didn't go over to 45-50 mph because the shaking was so bad I could barely control it. I did use a wire wheel on the hub flange and the back of the rotor.. I'll do it a 2nd time after i get them resurfaced.
 
if it started from 0 mph and got worse all the way up to 50 mph, it MIGHT not be the rotors but... getting them resurfaced is never a bad idea... just remember to keep us updated on how everythings going!
 
I think its surely got to do with the way the rotor is mating to the hub.. I a missing one stud so i cant really do a good x pattern. The brake pedal was pulsing even at 10mph stops. I'll update you guys tomorrow have having the rotors done.
 
stephenspann27 said:
I didn't go over to 45-50 mph because the shaking was so bad I could barely control it. I did use a wire wheel on the hub flange and the back of the rotor.. I'll do it a 2nd time after i get them resurfaced.
Click to expand...

This is not just a rotor problem. Rotors can get annoyingly warped, but barely in control at 45? You've got something else going on, maybe lots of somethings adding up.
 
If you had to hammer off the old rotors, I would expect that they rusted hard where the flange goes through the center hole of the rotor. Make sure you've cleaned all the rust off that projection properly so the rotor goes all the way down onto the surface of the hub flange. And make sure that the wheel also seats properly on the flange. It's a tight fit especially when it's rusty. Some anti-seize wouldn't hurt here.

While you're at it, knock a stud out of a hub on your parts jeep and replace that broken one. It's easy enough to do. Put a lug nut on so you don't mush up the threads on the end, and hit it with a heavy hammer, preferably a lead one. Put it in from behind as far as you can push it and tap it lightly, and pull it in the rest of the way with the lug nut when you reinstall the wheel.
 
Will this morning I took the drivers side rotor off and meticulously sanded and wirewheeled the rust off. Then test drove, I still had the warped feel when pressing the brake, but when thing started to wobble about 45 if I speed up it went away, and I could drive 70mph. I decided to pull both sides back off, and have them turned. The parts store said that one of them was undersized already.. so i had one turned, and bought one new one. I really went the extra mile polishing the hub surface. I put the new rotors on, and went for a test drive. Brake feel is now perfect absolutely no surging feeling. And I actually have more braking power than before I had the rotors turned. However, at 50mph I did get a little bit of a shimmy in the steering wheel, but it's really not bad. Its only at 50mph also.. no other speeds. And there is no shimmy under braking. I'll try rotating my tires to see if it goes away but its very negligable.

In summary, it seems to have been a combination of badly warped rotors, and uneven hub surface.
 
;) see, good thing for jeepers with similar expierence, id bet a good tire rotation and balance would fix that shimmy. i lost a 1 oz weight on the trail and i had a shimmy until i got it replaced
 
what's strange is.. the vibration has been at the same speed since I pulled the rotors off. Initial test drive was awful.. I could feel the wobble at low speed and it was uncontrollable at 45mph. I took the rotors off, cleaned the surface gain.. and it was improved, but still a wobble, this time at 45-50mph. Next I replaced one rotor and had the other turned, braking improved, no pulsing, but still a wobble at 50mph. I'm wondering if maybe I have dirt dobber nests up in the vented portion of my used rotor? I'm thinking if rotating the tires does not fix it. Then I will replace the single used rotor.... and see what happens. I"m sure I could have bent something hammering off the old rotors.. I just don't see how it could cause the front end to shake.
 
So, back to the zerk.

The only zerk in the area would be the ball joints. From what I've read you don't want the grease to squish out of that seal.

Just my .02
 
There is a zerk that goes directly into the bearing area. You have to remove the caliper to see it. Unfortunately quite a bit of it has slung out.. so I have grub worm like pieces of grease that slung out, into the inside of my rotor.. that smells great...

Keep in mind that mine is an '87... My Caliper says AMC on it, I may have more AMC parts than your '90.. my bearing may be different.
 
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I never saw zerks on my 87 (whose hubs I replaced at least once) and never heard of them. I suspect it may be an aftermarket hub, or perhaps someone managed to install them. I often wondered why there couldn't be some fittings somewhere on those hubs. Maybe someone else wondered the same thing and did some drilling and tapping.
 
I don't think the rotors have ever even been off. Everything on my front axle is extremely rusted. Much more so than the rest of the jeep. I had to buff rust of the reverse torx bolt to even get the socket on it. I also buffed the rust off the bolts that hold the hub/bearing on and removed them one at a time and put anti-seize on them. Everything on the front axle and hub area is covered in rust and scale.. and so are the bolt heads..

Before I got this jeep... I think all the previous owners have only replaced parts absolutely necessary to keep it rolling down the road.

I'm wondering if maybe I damaged my stabilizer.. and that's causing the wobble.. I'll rotate my tires later tonight and report back.
 
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