Mschafe

Here's what needs to be done, and i'm getting all the parts next week:

1- Replace BOTH front rotors and pads and all the hardware.
2- Put in all new wheel bearings for both front wheels
3- Replace ALL of the steering linkages.


I think that's it for now...


Matt

anthrax

Um find a mechanic...

Changing wheel barings can be rough ( I don't know what its like on an RX, but when I worked in a garage I helped the mechanic change some on other vehicles and it was not the easyest task in the world. The brakes are not too bad just bleeding them can be trickey. The bleeder screws have a tendancy to seize up and break off when you try to open them to bleed the breake lines.

As far as the steering linkage is concerned I have no idea.

Good luck

82transam

iTrader: (18)

easy, its all easy, you could have all that done in an afternoon no sweat. Having the special tool to push the races in makes it easier, but you can do it with a brass punch. By steering linkages i assume you mean the tie rod ends. if your replaceing the whole thing then you can wail on them with a hammer to get them out since you don't have to worry about their condition. Its easy stuff IMO

hornbm

wheel bearings are a piece of cake on just about any car man. I do them in auto shop ALL the time. And as for my rex, I removed, cleaned, repacked, and installed the wheel bearings on both front side in about 90 minutes. Its easy as hell.

Mschafe

Hmm.. well I don't think I have access to a press or anything, and I DON'T want to pay to have someone else do it, but thanks for the help. I'll see if I can figure it out.


Matt

DriveFast7

iTrader: (1)

Do you have a shop manual? It's all in there....

Not a tough job. You don't need a hydraulic press. To press wheel bearing races in I put the new one in the rotor and put two used ones on top of it and tap on the used races until the new race is fully seated.

Wankelguy

Your question itself tells me that you are fairly inexperienced as a mechanic, so I'll answer based on that assumption. The procedures you've outlined aren't particularly difficult for someone who is experienced with them, but may present some challenges for the neophyte. The ball joints in the front end can be difficult to seperate without a puller, for example. Also, the front end would need to be properly aligned afterward. The rotors can be hard to remove from the hubs, too, unless you know the trick to it. All this information can be found in a decent shop manual, I'd recommend getting one and reading the procedures TWICE before doing it yourself so that you will have a leg up on it before you start. Good luck with it! -WG

Mschafe

I'm not really an inexperienced mechanic... i've basically done everything BUT replace wheel bearings... I just want to make sure I do it the right way the first time, so my wheel doesn't end up flying off when i'm going down the freeway. I'm going to attempt it, and if I run into problems, i'll post here.

Matt

JALVORD_2003_68

here is how to replace the pads, an 30 minute job for most anyone.

1. Remove wheels
2. the caliper, the brake thingy that the pads are attached to, has two bolts holding it on. Remove the lower, i think, and the caliper flips up and you can remove the pads. Look closely at how the pads come apart and what spring is where, you will probadly use much of the hardware over so don't destroy anything removing the old pads.
3. Using c clamp vise grips, collapse the caliper, be careful when you do this cause it might cause the brake fluid resvoir to overflow. I diddn't have this problem but you might need to remove some brake fluid.
4. Re-assemble the thing and put the bolt back in.
~A note ~ to do it *right* you should drain your fluid and replace it with new fluid.
~Also~ remember brake pads require a run in braking, although theroies about how to do this vary, I like to do a series of 4 60mph to 0 stops, allowing 30 seconds in between to cool the pads down, using light, moderate, heavy and finally almost a lockup pressure. It works for me but any other ideas are welcome.

Don't be intimidated by the brakes, in fact, the front are the easier to change and when I changed mine for the first time it was pretty easy

~good luck~

Pele

iTrader: (28)

Front brakes are fairly easy, while you're at it, I'd do the rotors... You're gonna need to remove the rotors to do the bearings anyway...

I taught a friend of mine how to do the brakes on my Honda. I told her what to do and she did all the work... And she had never turned a wrench before either.... Did I mention it was a girl?

Anyhow... The rotors on the RX-7 are gonna be slightly harder than the Honda, but you should manage... A bearing race driver is fairly cheap, Probably 50 bucks for a good set for different sizes... I've never done them on mine, but they should be similar to front rotors on any other RWD vehicle...

There'll be a cap in teh canter of the hub, pry it off with a screwdriver, Then under all that grease, there'll be a nut. Remove it. The rotor and all bearings should come out... There's an inner and outer... Each is a differet size.

It's fairly straigh forward, but pick up a Haynes manual or a shop manual.. The pics are helpful...

Aviator 902S

One caveat to getting the front rotors off: to do this, you'll first need to remove the calipers (easy task), but then you need to remove the bracket that the caliper mounts to before the rotor will come off. This bracket is held on by two 14mm bolts, an upper bolt and a lower one.
The upper bolt is readily accessible, but the lower one is a BITCH. It's partially blocked by the steering knuckle so a 14mm socket won't fit into the available space. An ordinary 14mm box-end wrench won't seat onto the bolt head properly due to interference from the bracket and the steering knuckle.
What you will need is a 14mm OFFSET BOXEND (12-point) wrench. (not expensive at all). This wrench will still have to be slightly "customized" to fit though. You'll need to take it to a bench grinder and grind a bevel on the upper surface of the box so that it will clear the steering knuckle as you maneuver it into position and onto the bolt head. You'll see what I mean when you try to slip it on prior to grinding.
After removing the brackets it's only a matter of removing the cotter pin and retaining nut from the spindle. The rotor will then slide off, and the inner and outer wheel bearings will pop out of the rotor using a soft material (wood or plastic) drift punch. If you're replacing the rotors and wheel bearings with new ones (recommended), you'll need to pack the new bearings with good wheel-bearing grease. Spare absolutely no effort to get these bearings packed as thoroughly and with as much grease as possible and then some.

Pele

iTrader: (28)

OH!!! That's the 14 mm bolt everyone complains about...

I kept on thinking, WTF?!? I did brakes on the RX-7 and didn't have this problem... What's everyone's deal???

I didn't remove the caliper bracket. I pulled the caliper, took out the old pads, put on new pads and put it back together.

First time I did brakes. No wonder it squealed like hell... Never machined the rotors.

Aviator 902S

If you're only replacing the pads and/ or the calipers, the bracket doesn't have to come off. It's only when the ROTOR has to come off that you need to remove this bracket.

82transam

iTrader: (18)

that bolt will round off very easily if your using a regular old combo wrench. On of those "S bend" wrenches (technical name is "offset head wrench") makes it very easy to remove the caliper bracket. Is that the hard part your talking about wankelguy? I can't think of anything else that posed any sort of problem when I did it.

Pele

iTrader: (28)

I know... That's why I never knew what everyone's problem was...