How do you remove brake rotor on 1994 Honda Accord?

Answer 1

Answer:

On an Accord, the pads do not come off without removing the caliper first. The rotor on these Accords is not easily removeable by most home mechanics, it is a difficult job. You do NOT "knock the rotor off of the spindle", the rotor removes from the wheel bearing hub assembly only after the bearing assembly is removed from the steering knuckle, (it doesn't have a spindle).
Here's how: Remove hubcap. Use large 36mm socket (borrow it or buy it for about $18), use it and a large breaker bar to loosen the drive axle nut. THEN loosen the lug nuts, lift the car and remove the wheel. Remove the 14mm bolts that attach the rotor to the hub assembly, these are in between the lug studs. The rotor is now loose, but you can't get it off yet. Remove the lower ball joint cotter pin and nut, the pinch bolt at the lower end of the strut, the through-bolt for the strut fork, two bolts for the stabilizer link, remove the cotter pin and nut from the tie rod, use a pickle fork to separate the tie rod and steering knuckle, then separate the lower ball joint. Pull the steering knuckle assembly off of the drive axle, turn the knuckle as far to the outside as possible, to access the four bolts that hold the bearing hub assembly to the knuckle. Remove these 4 bolts (14mm) and soak the bearing area with penetrating oil. Remove the hub bearing from the knuckle, (this is rusted in place on most of these cars I've worked on and is usually EXTREMELY difficult to get it loose without destroying it.) Once the hub is removed from the knuckle, the rotor is now free. So as you can see the front brake pads are a quick, easy job on this car but the brake rotor is not.

Answer
Go to www.hondahookup.com. Register as a member. You will have to activate your account through the em that Hondahookup has sent you in your em. After you activate your account you will be given a welcome message. You are now ready to go to manuals. Go to manuals. Look for the 94 Honda Accord CD7_CD9 Manual. Download it to your desktop. You have to have Adobe reader to view the manual. Its a free download from Adobe. When you download Adobe reader download it to your desktop. Once it is downloaded, exit all of your applications. Run your Adobe application without any other system running. This assures for a clean setup. If other applications are running at the time you are installing Adobe, you may have to reinstall the whole deal again. The manual that you download will describe in detail how to do your work with illustrations. It will give you the most professional way to do it. It also tells you the special tools that are needed. The manual from Honda Hookup is a more detail description. The job is easy if you have the right tools. I have air tools. You don't need air tools. Also use a digital camera to record your movements. Use small plastic containers with labels to know where the bolts & nuts go. Buy a Haynes # 42013 Honda Accord 1994 thru 1997 repair manual. Always have a manual for the car you own. An original Honda manual is the best. The Haynes manual is not as good for this job as the Honda manual I got from the Honda Hookup website. The Haynes manual does show how to use a two-jaw puller on page 10-6, picture #8.5, to separate the lower control arm from the steering knuckle balljoint. On page 10-11, picture #16.4, it shows how to use the two-jaw puller to separate the tie-rod end from the steering knuckle arm. I buy the right tools for the right job, I used the Honda tool not the two jaw puller, it didn't go under the ball joint properly for me. Make sure your car is stable before you start working. Don't depend on a hydraulic jack to hold your car up. Use strong jack stands. I use 6 jack stands. Use tight blue rubber gloves to keep your hands from looking like crude. Clean the brakes with brake cleaner first. If its hot outside use a fan. The fan will blow away all of the harmful dust that you may breathe in. I also use sun blockers if you are in the open. Sun blockers are anything that keeps the sun off of you. If you are crafty you can build a canopy to block the sun. I have light stands and sand bags that I use to attach large pieces of cardboard to. The sand bags are to keep the light stands from falling over. This is for blocking the sun. I can also place a tarp over my work area with this method. For outside cold weather I use a 1000 watt Lowell D light. You can buy this light from BH photo. Its the best light in the world for winter work. I use portable led lanterns, Power On Board from Sam's. I also use a portable Dewalt light. All are rechargeable. Work smart not hard. Take a break if you get tired. Problems happen you are tired. Always have a cell phone near by for the unthinkable. We won't talk about this. lol If you have a video camera shoot what you do. It will be great as a guide when you have to put it all back together. Also it can be uploaded to youtube. I have been working on my cars all of my life with the help of all of my professional mechanic friends advice. I always buy Honda parts. Honda parts are the finest. It only cost a few dollars more to go first class. You can get oem Honda parts on-line for the same price as the aftermarket parts. Just type into the search engine "original Honda parts". One example is majestic Honda I buy mine on-line and at the Honda store in town. Have a blast working & learning on your Honda!
Update: Recently I found out that if you put this tool number into Google you will get all of the information you will ever want on the subject of how to do anything with your Honda. Its a gold mine of information. Just type this into Google, 07MAC-SL00100 (32 mm). You will get pdf's about different makes of Honda's. The 07MAC-SL00100 (32 mm) is a Honda ball joint separator tool that works on the 94 Honda and many other Honda cars. It separates the ball joint from the lower arm. If you use this special Honda tool you will make your job really easy. So many mechanics take the nut off of the ball joint and beat the lower arm until it separates. This is not the way I would recommend you to do it. You can accidentally hit the threaded part of the ball joint and then you are really in trouble. You have to put a 12mm hex nut onto the end of the threaded section of the ball joint to prevent damage to the treads. Then use the ball joint separator. There are many mechanics that use a Pittman arm separator to separate the ball joint from the lower arm. This method will tear the rubber boot on the ball joint. This is why I use the Honda 07MAC-SL00100 ball separator tool. $138 online. The tool will pay for itself. You can use other tools to do the job but you might be out of more money than you have bargained for in the end. Use the right tool for the right job and don't sweat it. Its easy when you use the Honda tool. Tearing the rubber boot will get you into more work. You will then have to replace the ball joint. Trying to save money can actually make you spend more money. How many times have I tried to save and then said "I knew better but I was trying to save money that I didn't have". If you have to replace the struts you will need the Honda tool again. What about if you eventually have to replace the ball joint. You can use this tool over and over again. And if you have a friend who has a Honda Accord you can split the cost.
I just looked into the Haynes Repair Manual # 42013. On page 10-6 picture # 8.5 they show how to separate the lower control arm from the steering knuckle balljoint with a two-jaw puller. Evidently it works. And it can also be used to separate the tie-rod end from the steering knuckle arm on page 10-11 picture # 16.4. This is probably the best way to go. The Honda special tool is the best but some what pricey. After finally doing all of the research on this job, I would recommend you using the two jaw puller that you see in the Haynes shop manual. It's more affordable than the hard to get Honda tool. As you see the Honda tool is made special for this job but the two jaw puller works well.
Update: I just found a web page that shows in detail how to use the Honda tool. Here is the web address. http://www.acuraworld.com/tsb/TSX/b90-027.pdf
Check this site out, I thought it was very informative. It has step by step information with detailed pictures of how to do the whole operation. I still think the special Honda tool is the best way to go. Still check this out. In this website the persons says the two jaw puller that the Haynes manual says use doesn't work. He didn't use the special Honda tool. He used a pickled fork which will damage the rubber boot on the ball joint. I still like the effort he has given here. He does show that you new the star 12mm socket to loosen the hub. That is something I hadn't touched on.

http://www.hondahookup.com/forums/showthread.php?t=154862
This is really the best example I have ever seen on how to use the tool. This tool works on more than one Honda. Always check with your local Honda dealer as to which of the two Honda tools is right for your Honda. It takes a minimum of two weeks to get this tool from all of the Honda dealerships & it could take even longer.
I haven't been able to find the Honda tool from any place except Honda.
update: I just found this online, I do not recommend this. This is an example of what I told you about people using the wrong tool. This person has said to use the pickled fork to separate the ball joint from the spindle. I would not use the pickled fork myself. I just wanted to let you see what others are saying. This is not my recommendations. this is a way to tear the rubber boot in my opinion. I know that thousands of mechanics all over the world use this method. NOT ME!!! Here goes someones opinion....
"Your Accord has what is called "Trapped Rotors". They actually fit behind the hub. The procedure to remove them is not complicated, but it is time consuming.
Here is how I do it:
1) Remove axle retaining nut.
2) Remove brake caliper and bracket.
3) Remove lower ball joint retaining nut and use pickle fork to loosen spindle from lower ball joint.
4) Remove axle from hub.
5) On the back of the spindle, remove four bolts that attach hub/bearing to spindle.
6) Use slide hammer to remove rotor/hub assembly.
7) Remove 4 bolts attaching rotor to hub.
8) While it is a snug fit, the hub bearing does slide through center of rotor to remove it.
Installation is in reverse order.
A bad bearing usually makes a growling noise while driving".

• == Final thoughts on this whole deal! Use the Honda tool or the OTC ball joint separator from Sears. Item# 00971255000 Model# 6297. They have cheaper versions. From what I have read from others who have tried the two jaw puller it doesn't have a good enough grip on the jaw area to get under the rubber boot to hold on. That's why Honda made their tool to securely hold on.
  ==
• UPDATE 11-10-09
• I just changed out my rotors. I can truly say that I have new news about this ordeal. This is ground breaking NEWS. I now know how to do the whole job. Without a serious problem in getting it done. Follow my advice above about the Honda tool. It worked so fast & efficiently. I left off the instructions @ the point where it really gets tough. After you have disconnected everything, you still have to separate the rotor from the hub. All of this is done while the rotor & the hub are still attached to the car. Reconnect the tire rod end for stability. Use two cold chisels (regular size with flat points, the gap is flat so you use flat pointed chisels). You have to place the chisels between the front hub(the part with the tire studs on it) and the rotor. Place one chisel on the left and the other on the right. I heard a story about a person using a air chisel, it won't work unless the attachment is large enough to separate the two pieces. Take a 5 pound hammer and bang your head off. Do not hurt anything in the center. Always look to see where you are banging. Don't hit anything. Just use the chisels to move into open areas between the two objects. Use a small flash lite to see where the chisels are headed. Once you have separated the front hub piece as far as you can and the front hub hasn't released itself, use a steel wood wedge. After a nite of using the two small cold chisels with success, I had failure on the drivers side. I couldn't get the hub & the rotor to separate. (the two small chisels were not thick enough)The log splitter wedge is the tool to use if the two cold chisels don't work. I had two of them in my tool bin. It worked like a charm. There you have it. Use the two regular cold chisels first. (always look where you are going with the chisels)You have to use the two small cold chisels first. The gap between the the hub part with the tire studs & the rotor is too small to use the log splitting wedges. I now call the log splitting wedges the new separators for this job. After separation, you have to rejoin the two hub pieces. Attach the rotors bolts to the front hub piece with strength. Use pressure to tighten the bolts into rotor. It has to align itself for proper rotation. Use a 2X4 on top of the back side of the hub to put the two parts of the hub back together. ( you have to use the wood as a cushion so not to hurt the metal. You have to take the mud guard off to get to the back part of the hub. An impact screw driver was used to take the mud guard screws off. (only on one side, use a penetrating oil) I had to use gentle knocking and penetrating fluid to release the back hub part & patience. It was all rusted after I got it off. I sanded all of the rust away with Grey fine sandpaper. I repacked the bearings. I can now tell you that separating the rotor from the hub is unreal if you use a slide hammer(a hub separator won't work as good as my method). The rust can cause serious problems. My method of using the chisels & the log splitting wedges works better than the sliding hammer & hub separator. The force you put on the chisel and the wedge is greater than the force you can place on the sliding hammer. You can't use a regular hammer. Has to be a 5 lb. or larger. Don't let the hammer slide off the chisel, it just might hit you left index finger. (still in pain, I was tired when doing this job, never use the hammer when tired) Use the wedges after you get a good gap. Good luck.