roughstock

I have a bunch of horses that I have to haul this weekend and next, and of course, some thing broke. My front brakes were making an awful grinding noise. Upon the "free brake inspection" at a local shop, my inner pads were shot and had worn a huge groove in both rotors, also there is some play in the entire rotor assembly. The quoted me approx $1100 (US dollars). AHHHHH!
this was to replace both rotors, pads, and bearings/seals that come with rotor assembly. I called my guy at NAPA and he quoted me $487 for premium pads, rotor, etc. The local shop wanted $369 per rotor assembly plus install.
Is this crazy? I told the shop that I had only budgeted $500 for the repair, so I would have to do it my self. They called back an hour later and said they could do it for $700plus i get their warranty on their work. My questions are:

are the rotors machinable?

Are the riping me off?

Is it that hard that I couldn't do it my self?
I leave Thurs AM. DO i have time? Work 8-6 Mon-Fri.

Should I just let them do it and have peace of mind that it is done right?

Please advise.
Need to hit the road.

infidel

I would have charged you more, you're getting a good deal

I find it a waste of time and money to turn these rotors. If warped the warp comes right back, if scored deeply they become out of spec before much material is taken off.

handymantim

My vote is to do it yourself. Changing front brakes on a 2wd is relatively simple. If you've never done it before, do you have anybody around who can help?

I also don't like to turn rotors. New ones are relatively cheap and elminates the hassle of having the old ones turned and they may be junk anyway (warped, cracked, too thin).

Generic directions (not sure about specifics for 97 Ram):
A. Have lots of clean rags and brake cleaner available. Grease.
1. Loosen lug nuts
2. Jack up 1 wheel. Use jack stand.
3. Remove lug nuts and wheel
4. Remove caliper and support with old wire coat hangar. Do not let it hang from brake line.
5. Remove dust cap, cotter pin, outer bearing etc. Remember order of parts but basically from inside out it's bearing, washer, nut, collar, cotter pin, cap.
6. Remove old pads and rotor
7. Grease bearings. You can buy a cheap tool for packing bearings. Install inner bearing in rotor and install seal. Be careful to install seal straight. A seal install tool helps but isn't required.
8. Install rotor, then outer bearing in reverse order from #5. Tighten nut with a wrench while spinning rotor then loosen nut and retighten with your fingers plus just a smidge more. This may be different for your 97 Ram so hopefully somebody will chime in if different.
9. Compress caliper. It's best to loosen the bleeder while doing this but you should bleed the brakes when finished. A large C clamp and an old brake pad make this job easier.
10. Clean the rotor on both sides with brake cleaner. Grease on brakes is bad.
11. Install pads. I like to use Disc Brake Quiet on the backs of the pads to prevent sqeaking.
12. Clean caliper mounting surfaces and install caliper
13. Install wheel. Lower truck. Torque lug nuts.
14. Do other side. Bleed brakes. Add new brake fluid.

rocket82

i agree with handymantim.

Monkey 456

The local shop here in town quoted the same on my 96 4x4. I went to the local parts store and picked up the parts needed loaded calipers and rotors also picked up shoes for the rear and turned the drums for under 400 bucks. If you are going to do the rears do your self a favor and get some brake pliers.I think you should do it your self to learn how and save a _utt load money. Just do one side at a time. Use the other side for reference.

1-2-3

The rotors can be turned, but that's depending on how thick they are versus how deep the groves are. there's a minimum allowable thickness dimension cast into them. No shop with and backbone should turn them thinner than that number. The factor really doesn't allow you too much extra to turn on these things. i guess just a way of cutting costs.

And if there is any job doable by an owner, this is it. The steps above are pretty good. Always use new cotter pins. Keep area as clean as possible. I would bet if you've never packed (greased) some bearings before, you can find plenty of Youtube vids showing how. i prefer the old fashioned way of pressing the grease in with a palm, but either way will be fine. Another point of interest is when you tighten the castle nut (the nut that hold the bearings on it with the groves for the cotter pin) it's more of a feel. I spin and snug the nut then back off just a hair. You don't want too much or too little on this. it's best when it's just right and to me, it's just an acquired feel to it. But as I said, it's nothing that you can't do. Just take your time, be clean, and feel free to post pics and ask questions along the way.