Next week I am going to be doing the front a rear brakes on my brothers 99ish explorer. I was wondering do the back rotors pull off the hub like the fronts do or is it more involved? I read that theres a metal clip holding on the front rotor to the hub is this true for the back also?
Dan

 

There are probably one way washers from the assembly line holding the rotors on. Otherwise, they pull straight off the axle flanges once the calipers are out of the way. The Explorer has a drum parking brake under the rotor "hat". Just be sure the parking brake is released completely and the rotor should come right off - if it isn't rusted to the axle flange.

 

Yep, I just rebuilt my Explorer 8.8 rear disc. The rotors slid right off after removing the calipers.

 

ok what about the parking brake shoes? I've never actually done rear brake shoes on a car before. You said the shoes are under the rotor "hat" what exactly does that mean and how hard is it to change the old shoes into the new rotor, or should I just replace the shoes while I'm there?

 

You can check the p-brake shoes but they rarely wear out unless the driver leaves the brake on while driving.

The rotor pulls straight off and the shoes are hidden behind it and expand in a "drum" that is machined inside the rotor. If there's nothing wrong with the shoes, you shouldn't need to deal with them. Changing them can be a PITA.

This is what the components look like:

 

Hey Bob....to replace or remove those shoes, do you have to pull the axle? I noticed most of the springs and shoe parts are behind the axle shaft, completely inaccessible. I need to replace a spring in my driver's side parking brake.

 

When Bill and I did the Ex brake conversion on his LII, installing those springs took some effort. We found that the springs had to go on after the axles were in place - with the springs preinstalled on the shoes, the axles could not be pushed in far enough to install the C-clips. Fun.

Read this for more info.
https://www.ranger-forums.com/forum2...ad.php?t=21614

 

Thanks for the prompt response! I had a feeling I'd have to work that spring on there with the axle still inplace. OHHHH boy....Here come some bloody fingers!

 

The problem is that an ordinary brake spring plier won't fit into that small area. We struggled with it for awhile, trying different tools. It took both of us working together to get each of the outer springs into place. IIRC, we used a Snap-on cotter pin puller and a needle nose Vise Grip.

 

Grrrrreat! Neither of which I currently own! Thanks for the great information and the link with pictures! I'll give it a shot when I get out of class, and report back on here to share how it went.

 

ok so I can pull the rear rotors off without messing with shoes, thats exactly what I was hoping for since I can almost guarentee that the shoes are fine since its an automatic and he probably rearly uses ebrake

 

all done it wasn't really that bad. The explorer had 90k on it without ever having the rear brakes done so I am suprised everything came off so easy. The rotors needed a little banging but thats expected