I need some help with the rear brakes on a 98 Explorer. Those who have swapped this axle into their Ranger may know the answer to this one... I need to know how to get the rotor off the axle. I've removed the caliper and the little clips on the studs. I loosened the parking brake adjuster and even disconnected the cable from the brake assembly. I've tried everything including beating it with a hammer and the rotor won't budge. If I'm missing something, please let me know. I'm getting some penetrating oil tomorrow in case it's just rusted on but if someone knows something I don't about this, please let me know.

Thanks.

 

I'll look in the service manual. Does this mean rear discs could be on the horizon?

No call from Ryan, huh? Oh well...

 

hell yeah disk brakes kick *** ... i have it all sittin in my garage just need to install ....

sometimes with explorers people will drive with the ebrake on ... it would wear the shoes and the inside of the rotor causeing the shoes to stick into the rotor making ti very hard to remove .... so adjust the rear drum/ebrake shoes all the way down, so they are loose use the penetrating oil and hit with a hammer to brake the rotor loose and it should come off .... ive had to do that ALOT at work for just doing rear brakes jobs .... had to do the same for the ebrake stuff i got off the explorer in the junk yard ... good luck!!!



EDit:

Are you swapping the whole axle in? IF ur not the 28 spline axle wont work with it, i dont think but i saw a thread on therangerstation.com about a guy who did it with the 28 spline houseing with the explorer brakes ...

 

Here's what it says:


Disc


Removal

1. Note:
When removing the rear brake disc (2C026) in this procedure it is not necessary to disconnect the hydraulic lines.

Remove the rear disc brake caliper (2552). For additional information, refer to «Caliper» in this section.

2. Note:
If the rear brake disc binds on the rear parking brake shoe and linings, remove the adjustment hole access plug and contract the parking brake shoe and lining.

Remove the rear brake disc.

 

Jared,

I am working on rear disc brakes for the Ranger but that is separate from this endeavor. Right now, I'm working on replacing the pads/rotors on the Explorer. For my rear disc brake setup, I'm using the calipers from a towncar and will be fabricating my own brackets. The biggest delay I've had in doing this is trying to find rotors that fit over the axle flange. I didn't want to use the Explorer rotors because of the drum-in-hat parking brake design but since I will have a rotor available for mocking up my brackets, this is the way I'm going to go. If I can get the Explorer done early enough, I'm hoping to have the brackets fabricated for the Ranger very soon.

 

So, uh, if you need a beta tester..

 

AWESOME .... I want to see pics of this!

 

Once it's done, I'll have pics and I'll make brackets available. You'll be on your own for the calipers and pads tho...

 

I'm definately on the waiting list.

 

I'll probably just get remans instead of junkyard diving, except for the rotor, I'll get powerslots to match (probably won't pop for the cryos in the rear, though.)

What year TownCar are you sourcing the calipers from? I'm going to keep an eye out for parts. Non cryo-Powerslots are only $82 each for that application.

 

I believe it was a 95 but I got them so long ago I really can't remember. I'll pull the part number off the calipers and find out for sure. These calipers are nice because they have the parking brake built in (which I want) although I don't know how I'm going to attach the parking brake cable.

I'm going to go with all remanufactured parts once I'm sure I can make it work. Used parts are good for mocking up the brackets. One thing that I doubt is available outside of a junkyard is a part of the caliper bracket. The towncar has a bracket that goes over the rear caliper that will be required.

 

One prototype is done and I'll be working on the other on Monday. If all goes well, I will have them on my truck next week and then be ready to start making brackets for everyone else.

 

Ha ha! No, that would be ME!

 

John actually has dibs on this one. He gave me his old axle to use for mocking up the brackets so the first set (after mine) go to John.

I'd like to get everyone's opinion on something regarding the brackets. There's two .25" plates that need to be separated by 3/8". For the prototype, I have a piece of 3/8" plate for the spacer and it's all welded together. What I'd like to do is make spacers from .25" wall round tubing and either weld or bolt it all together. Bolts would be nice because you could add washers if you need more space or I could simply provide different size spacers for different applications. My question is, what would everyone else prefer and does anyone think bolting it together with grade 8 hardware wouldn't be strong enough??

 

I'm sort of surprised you're not shying away from bolts in a brake part given your recent experience, but I'd venture than a bolt and a weld have about the same propensity to fail, depending on the work done to put it together.

The ability to use washers to make fine-tuning adjustments would be ideal, though.

Have you figured out what year towncar I need to go steal from? Lots and lots of towncars in FL.

 

Quite frankly, I wouldn't trust ordinary flat washers in this application. Washers are soft and, could lead to loosened bolts and failure. The more you stack up, the more dangerous it could become. A single machined steel spacer with a lot of contact area MIGHT be OK but I would be much happier with a direct bolt on.

 

Yeah, that makes alot of sense.. Washers aren't the greatest idea for such a critical component.