DIY: Rear Rotor Replacement

[spooph]

Following from this thread: http://www.ninjette.org/forums/showt...+rotor+install

It's time to replace the rear rotor. 0.5mm under the recommended limit, and 40K in. Yea, it's time. Quick side note: When I first got the bike and knew nothing of riding properly the first thing I replaced were the rear brake pads after 6K. The guys at the shop told me I'm doing something wrong, so I stopped using the rear brake and learned all kinds of things about braking. Since then I've replaced them twice. That's 3 sets of rear pads to 6 sets of front pads in 40K... I think.... If I claimed something in an earlier post, you should probably believe the previous post....

First, support the bike in a stable fashion. Last time I used a rear stand and a floor jack to support the bike. Yes, that was a bit sketch but I got it done. This time around, you only need the rear stand. I have a few other projects going on as well, which is why I have the bike suspended on stands on each corner. I'll get to those later.... Also, if anybody has any hints or way of doing this an easier way, please post up! Anyways, rear rotor DIY:

Remove the rear wheel:


Hold the wheel down with your knees:


Break the 3 bolts loose that hold the rotor to the wheel. These are locked with enough red lock-tite to hold an M1A Abrahams tank together, so use a long lever.


Now you're stuck with a bolt that's stuck to your hex wrench socket. Hrm...


Stick the bolt in a vice and wiggle the breaker bar or ratchet back and forth. Sometimes you can get it to break free if you go in the opposite direction (tightening in this case).


If that doesn't do it, or you have to crank the vice too much and are afraid you're going to damage the bolt, remove the breaker bar and wiggle the bit from side to side. With some coaxing and sweet talk it'll finally let loose.


All the bolts removed:


Then just pull the rotor off:


Here's the replacement rotor with some info moved in for easy referrence:


Comparison between stock rotor and EBC replacement rotor. The waves in the rotor are offset a bit and it doesn't have a black center piece, but otherwise it looks like an exact copy including the relief for the 3 bolts that hold it to the wheel.


Another comparo shot:


New rotor in place:


New lock-tite on the bolt to go back in. Turn these in with your hands until they will no longer go, THEN attach the ratchet and tighten them up. This way you avoid cross-threading. If you don't remove the old lock-tite there will be a bit of resistance. I'm lazy, so I just use a bit more force and don't clean off the old lock-tite...


Torque down the bolts with a torque wrench to 20ft. lbs. That felt a bit light to me, so I went to 25ft. lbs.


Put the wheel back on the bike and voila! I'm using the old pads on this rotor because everything is clean and they still have plenty of life on them. To replace the pads, I'm sure there are HOW TO's floating around. I did this one for the front rotor:
http://www.newninja.com/forums/f104/...pads-4520.html

The rear pad replacement is the exact same being that the calipers are the same, and so are the pads.

[Alex]

Nice! Linked from the main DIY sticky thread.

[00NissanNinja]

Nice, hope they perform well.

[spooph]

Thanks!

[kamikaze]

is there anything i need to know about removing the wheels? I gotta get new tires this spring, and this being my first bike, I've never had the wheels off it. I've got stands, and a helper if necessary.

[spooph]

Removing the wheels are pretty straight forward. Pull the cotter pin, undo the nut, pull the axle and the rear wheel drops out. Wrestle the chain off the rear wheel and watch where the bushings fall. Getting it in however, that's a whole nother story...

All I can say is a helper helps A LOT putting the rear wheel back. Grease is your friend, and can be used as a sticky-goo to hold in the bearing on either side of the wheel while you try to line up the wheel, bushings, and brake caliper mount so that you can slide the axle in.... I typically put the axle into the left member of the swing arm, hoist the wheel up with both side's bushing "stikied" in with grease, navigate the caliper mount, and while holding the wheel with my right hand, slide the axle through with my left. Don't forget to put the swing arm-axle cover thingys on either... I hope that helps. If you have a factory service manual it's pretty easy to see how things go together...

[kamikaze]

Originally Posted by spooph

Removing the wheels are pretty straight forward. Pull the cotter pin, undo the nut, pull the axle and the rear wheel drops out. Wrestle the chain off the rear wheel and watch where the bushings fall. Getting it in however, that's a whole nother story...

All I can say is a helper helps A LOT putting the rear wheel back. Grease is your friend, and can be used as a sticky-goo to hold in the bearing on either side of the wheel while you try to line up the wheel, bushings, and brake caliper mount so that you can slide the axle in.... I typically put the axle into the left member of the swing arm, hoist the wheel up with both side's bushing "stikied" in with grease, navigate the caliper mount, and while holding the wheel with my right hand, slide the axle through with my left. Don't forget to put the swing arm-axle cover thingys on either... I hope that helps. If you have a factory service manual it's pretty easy to see how things go together...

thanks, I've got a pdf of the manual. I didn't figure it would be a big job, but with my luck something will be a pain in the ass for sure.