tires and wheels Brake Fail

[Frenchee]

My friend and his neighbor that owns an 02 replaced the rotors and brake pads today.

We thought we put everything back correctly. We think it might have been when putting the rotor back on and the ball bearing, the ring and the size 24 nut. I was driving away and blump blump blump. I stop and looking at the front wheels the cap covering the thread to bolt the rotor on popped off and the ring is smashed into pieces. The wheel seems to be not aligned but it is nicely on with the lug nuts. The lug nuts are on tight but when looking at the whole in the center cap the threaded hub part is totally off.

Its hard to explain.

ITs sitting on the street.

Any ideas what might have happened??

[Guest Anonymous]

My friend and his neighbor that owns an 02 replaced the rotors and brake pads today.

We thought we put everything back correctly. We think it might have been when putting the rotor back on and the ball bearing, the ring and the size 24 nut. I was driving away and blump blump blump. I stop and looking at the front wheels the cap covering the thread to bolt the rotor on popped off and the ring is smashed into pieces. The wheel seems to be not aligned but it is nicely on with the lug nuts. The lug nuts are on tight but when looking at the whole in the center cap the threaded hub part is totally off.

Its hard to explain.

ITs sitting on the street.

Any ideas what might have happened??

It's not that hard to explain. The castle nut that retains the rotor to the spindle was either not tightened properly or something was wrong with the bearing installation. Did someone spin the entire assembly with the wheel off the ground to get an inkling that things were done properly? There is a reason for the castle nut and the cotter pin that secures it. Go back and look at the Haynes manual for the correct procedure.

[JohnN]

front wheel bearings or try and re-use the old bearings?

Did you drive the old races out of the old rotors and move them to the new rotors, or just put the cone bearings in?

John N

[c.d.iesel]

photographs coming at 9-Oclock ...... we hope

[M3M3]

this should be easy...just jack it up and take it apart again. what may have been done wrong will be obvious. then take apart the other side as the mistake probably happened on both sides...

sure sounds like a bearing assembly issue.

[Frenchee]

Sorry no pictures. Maybe tomorrow. Everyone seems to say its a bearing issue. The bearings that were on there were a bit cone shaped with little bars on it. Prob the bearings. We just re-used those ones . And we put the old center part of the rotor that has the screws in too. Reused those.Then when we put the rotor back on we had another cone bearing that we put after it then a weird washer adn then the nut. And to finish it off the little cap .

[Frenchee]

It looked like this http://www.autohausaz.com/search/imageexpand.aspx?imageurl=../secure/PartImages/311405645.jpg

[Guest]

Sorry no pictures. Maybe tomorrow. Everyone seems to say its a bearing issue. The bearings that were on there were a bit cone shaped with little bars on it. Prob the bearings. We just re-used those ones . And we put the old center part of the rotor that has the screws in too. Reused those.Then when we put the rotor back on we had another cone bearing that we put after it then a weird washer adn then the nut. And to finish it off the little cap .

Consider the thought that it could have held together until you were at speed on the freeway.

Call AAA. Have it towed to a shop. Pay them to fix it. Live a long life.

[c.d.iesel]

...yes sir - you are showing us a ROLLER BEARING

vs a ball bearing (we don't need to show that,

I think!)

question is though THIS IS what it-all should look like,

but the deadly serous question is what you really DID?

NEVER reuse roller bearings that have seen service for

any time that is unknown to you, 20 years, cooked

solidified grease, any darkiening, blackening, blueing

coloring of those rollers, or the 'cones' (really races)

surfaces.the adjustment of the pinch nut is very important

as you now realise. You really need someone with experience

to demonstrate to you how it's done. I'll let the other folks here

continue with that attempt.

[Frenchee]

Thanks for the graphics Diesel.

Im so frustrated I messed up with the bearings. Just one step. Ugh.

Jan in San Jose is really cool hes towing it to my house. I wish I could take it to the shop but I'm don't have money to take it there. I will take off the wheel and if anything more than the bearings are damaged then I prob will have to and figure out how. If its just the bearings, where could I find that ring that goes after the bearing?

[JohnN]

bearing rides on.

CD is absolutely correct, it is piss poor economics to reuse bearings.

If you're absolutely completely stuck, you need to drive the old races out of the old rotors (there will be two of them) on each side.

At this point if you've only fucked up the roller bearing you should consider yourself lucky. You may have damaged the spindle.

You're very lucky you didn't kill yourself.

John N

[Frenchee]

Why are you making assumptions ? A bearing cost like 10 bucks max if I would have known I would have replaced them. Don't tell me its "piss poor economics" . Sorry I didn't know it was recommended to change them.

[Guest]

Hit your parents up for the dough. Show them this thread. They will help or make you park the 02 until you save enough money to have the brakes worked over by a pro.

[c.d.iesel]

.........as you can see the special washer with a keyed center hole

for the notch in the spindle is available.

Order the bearing kit (one kit needed for each side)

the special washer maybe seperate - allong with the special

nut for the COTTER PIN.

iF YOU JUST RAN THE NUT UP AGAINST THE BEARING WITHOUT THE WASHER? that pretty well explains the failure.

And did you forget the cotter pin also ???

was there a washer in there when you disassembled the hub?

[TobyB]

iF YOU JUST RAN THE NUT UP AGAINST THE BEARING WITHOUT THE WASHER

I was thinking like CD on this one.

The washer is designed to keep the bearing from being able to turn the nut.

I've done things like this- both when I didn't know better AND when

I should have. It happens to all of us. And you have to be ready to

take a little abuse for it.

That said, it's NOT poor economics to not fuss with something you don't

fully understand. Yes, it's $25 a side for new bearings BUT if you don't

know how to change races AND the bearings are healthy, there's NOTHING

wrong with cleaning and regreasing them. I'd argue that changing the races

(and thus the bearings) SHOULDN'T be done more frequently than required,

as there's a definite possibility that you could fu*k them up while

doing it. And that there's a much higher chance that a novice could cause

damage than someone who's done it a hundred times. But even a pro

could miss a bit of grit under a race, and that can cause all sorts of problems.

So if it was my car, I'd jack it up and take the wheel off and take a look.

Look for the washer and the cotter key (or bits thereof) very carefully.

I'll bet you haven't really hurt much.

Look for scoring where edges have met, and any obvious damage.

Do be ready to buy a new bearing, and maybe a seal.

(you DID use new seals, right???)

One thing that pops to mind- do you know how to re- set the bearing preload?

The joke on a 2002 is that it's negative- as in, you want the nut to be just

a touch LOOSE on the bearings. Just a touch. Then the cotter key holds the

nut in place, and that special washer keeps the bearing from breaking the nut.

It's all a bit... tenuous, really.

But it works,.

HTH,

t