Do I need to get the center hub nut off and the hub out to take the rotors out ? its a 2WD solid axle setup 

Rotors dont have studs or hub just like a small sedan rotors do I punch the studs out ? or its comes off separate ? 

As far as I know you need to remove the hub and rotor as unit then using a press or hammer remove all the studs. Since your studs are not damaged I would opt for having the studs pressed out to prevent damaging them.

I just did this a month ago, as mopar says you need to remove the big nut, then the hub and rotor comes off together. Then remove the 8 bolts that hold the hub and rotor together, mine then separated with a few taps of the hammer but my truck has hasn't been exposed to much salt. The wheel bearing nut is suppost to be replaced each time, I have reused the nut with some removable Loctite. IIRC the nut torque is 280 ftlbs. If you use Loctite be aware that it take a min of 400 ftlbs to remove nut the next time.

Edited June 17, 201510 yr by bcbigfoot

On your 98, yes, you have to pull the nut. On my '01 with '05 brakes, I just pull the caliper bracket and slide the rotor off the sealed hub. 

The early series the unit bearing and the rotor came out together. Then you had to press all the stud out to remove the rotor. The later series like Ronman says you just remove caliper and caliper bracket and the rotor slides off the studs.

The early series the unit bearing and the rotor came out together. Then you had to press all the stud out to remove the rotor. The later series like Ronman says you just remove caliper and caliper bracket and the rotor slides off the studs

 

 

I had also come to this conclusion after reading the 2002 service manual, the service manual is at best is poorly written and confusing (actually just wrong).  The hub/unit bearing is bolted with nuts and bolts (no studs) to the rotor.  There is no way of removing the rotor without removing the unit bearing nut.  I just did a complete brake job 1 month ago,  and found the service manual wrong.   

Edited July 7, 201510 yr by bcbigfoot

I had also come to this conclusion after reading the 2002 service manual, the service manual is at best is poorly written and confusing (actually just wrong).  The hub/unit bearing is bolted with nuts and bolts (no studs) to the rotor.  There is no way of removing the rotor without removing the unit bearing nut.  I just did a complete brake job 1 month ago,  and found the service manual wrong.   

 

I just replaced the drums, calipers, and pads on my front end and I found a lot of discrepancies with the FSM.  However, between that Google and this web site I was able to figure things out.

It's really so nice not having to deal with bearings to change rotors.
 

I really do sit back and scratch my head about drilled or slotted rotors. Like your picture about in a small amount of time with a premium brake pads it would eat the rotor to those slots and and bonus would be gone. As for drilled and slotted through the rotor most have issues with heat eventually cracking the rotors. Which the drilling and slots make it weaker. So is there any bonus when the life span could be shorten?

 

248k miles OEM rotors still going.

Actually 90k on Hawk red/HDs (20k+ of that towing >10klbs) and they're still plenty deep... I'll try to get a pic.

As for the point of them, when it rains like it does here in the tropics, it's nice not to have that initial hesitation caused by water between the pad and rotor surface. It's clear from reading your posts that you baby your truck, so it's entirely possible that you haven't had the need to replace your rotors. Plenty of people do replace them, and have perfectly valid reasons for it. You probably don't have to haul your truck down from highway speeds to a near-panic stop multiple times a trip because tourists don't know how to deal with exit signs and merge lanes, and freak out when it's raining at 3"/hr, for example...

I replaced my rotors because my original brakes were garbage, and I wanted to upgrade to bigger, better 3rd-gen parts. Since buying used brake rotors is about as stupid as "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" I needed good rotors. People whose opinion I trust suggested these and they have not proved wrong; in fact, people I road race with who've driven my truck cannot stop talking about how good my brakes are - huge stopping power, superb pedal feel, etc.

Edited July 12, 201510 yr by ronman

Some surface cracking is visible, but the ridges are very much not worn down. They're getting replaced in a few months, I'm contemplating trying out EBC Yellow pads. Also going to rebuild the calipers while I'm in there...

 

 

Edited July 14, 201510 yr by ronman

If you haul or tow heavy I would stay away from ceramics. I ran "green stuff" on the rears for a little bit and they squeaked a lot and once heated up won't stop a load. I rolled through a couple stop signs/red lights with those pads when hauling.

We run Porterfield R-compounds in our race cars, but I don't want to eat up the rotors like they do... I'd never use ceramics on my truck. The EBC yellows are high end semi metallics.

http://www.urotuned.com/ebc_brake_temp.jpg

It's really so nice not having to deal with bearings to change rotors.

 

you have a DRW Right,  so you have disk on rear or drum??  mine is 2002 3500DRW and it has Disk.. just wandering if these were rotors your using on back

Edited July 15, 201510 yr by rburks

Mine is an early '01, so it's still drums out back. That's the front rotor before mounting the dually adapter...

whats a dually adapter, they just slide up on the wheel studs don't they??

I didn't forget about you, rburks!!!!

 

I did the fronts today. For Mike, I measured the thickness on the new rotors - 35.6mm - and the one I took off the driver's side, the one that wasn't completely borked because of a hung caliper, was down to 35.3mm after over 80k. That's with Hawk "red" pads. The grooves are ~3mm deep, it's tough to get an accurate measurement but using a small nail I got close enough. 

 

Parts porn: 

 

Anyway, here's the dually adapter:

 

 

I got one side done on the back, but I'm stuck til I can get an axle seal in the morning to do the other.