Do you still have the rivets in your rotors?

[BeaterShark]

Not long after I bought my car in '99, I rebuilt the rear TA assemblies. I was shocked to find that both the roters were still riveted on. After all, the guy I bought it from used it as his main car from '73 - '89. He also claimed that he did not know the original mileage as the odo was out for a long time, so you know it is a high mileage car.

Well, a few weeks back, I lost a brake pad and the front rotor needed replacing. What do you know, it's still riveted to the hub.

How can a 35 year old car wuth umteen hundred thousand miles still have the original, un-turned rotors?

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

My car has around 125,000-ish miles and two of the rotors are still original, riveted and unturned. Nor do they need to be turned.

One of the modern myths perpetuated by brake shops is that rotors need to be turned every time you change pads. Bad, bad, bad. Very bad.

On the other hand, C2 and C3 rotors need to be mated to their hubs when being turned, never independently. Whether they are held together with the original rivets or temporarily with the lug nuts makes no difference. Maybe the previous owner had them machined that way?

 

[Copdogcorvettes]

I have had 3 C3's two 78's and One 80. Only one of the 78's didn't still have to rotors riveted. The rotors seem to hold up very well. Must of the C3s I have worked on the rotors were still riveted. I've more riveted than not.

Gary

 

[iron cross]

Bad Bad

My car has around 125,000-ish miles and two of the rotors are still original, riveted and unturned. Nor do they need to be turned.

One of the modern myths perpetuated by brake shops is that rotors need to be turned every time you change pads. Bad, bad, bad. Very bad.

On the other hand, C2 and C3 rotors need to be mated to their hubs when being turned, never independently. Whether they are held together with the original rivets or temporarily with the lug nuts makes no difference. Maybe the previous owner had them machined that way?

If you like a incomplete brake job, never cut the rotors. The expense is not that great and why take a chance that the rotors are still true. If a do it your selfer wants to save money, thats not the place to be cheap. Throwing money away on usless roller engine parts is where you can really save. Brakes are cheap insurance and I do presume everyone here likes his or her Vette. I`m sure you realize that when it`s started you at some point must stop it.

 

[Eddie 70]

None of my calipers were riveted on my 70. The rotors had definately been removed before. They have been off again for different reasons.

 

[JohnZ]

Assuming there are no other problems that would affect lateral runout (bad bearings, etc.), the original factory rotors will just about last forever IF you use factory OEM replacement pads. If you replace the original pads with semi-metallic or metallic "race" pads, those WILL eat your rotors.

Brake shops love to turn rotors, but they work all day long with cars that have floating single-piston calipers that don't have the fixed-caliper Corvette's sensitivity to lateral runout. If your rotors don't show obvious scoring or wear and don't have any cracks in the cooling fins, there's no reason to "turn" them - it can cause more problems than it solves if it's done by shops that don't understand Corvettes (and most don't).

 

[ness5353]

i believe in rivets! use them....

 

[Vettehead Mikey]

Re: Bad Bad

If you like a incomplete brake job, never cut the rotors. The expense is not that great and why take a chance that the rotors are still true. If a do it your selfer wants to save money, thats not the place to be cheap. Throwing money away on usless roller engine parts is where you can really save. Brakes are cheap insurance and I do presume everyone here likes his or her Vette. I`m sure you realize that when it`s started you at some point must stop it.

Hey Wally,

How often do you have the rotors resurfaced on that '62?:crazy

 

[bradfordsvettes]

gm does not really recommend turning rotors if they are in spec .every time you turn a rotor it gets thinner and is less able to dissapate heat .then it is more prone to warping . this is the generals overall opinion steve

 

[JohnZ]

i believe in rivets! use them....

It's not necessary to have the rivets, assuming lateral runout is within specs - the rotors were riveted to the hubs/spindles originally prior to machining the rotors so the rotors could be finished actually turning on the bearings (front) and spindle centers (rear) to minimize lateral runout of the rotor surface. Once the car is assembled, the wheel holds the rotor tight against the hub flange (front) or spindle flange (rear) and the rivets serve no useful purpose. If you have to remove the rear rotors to service the parking brake (which requires drilling out the rivets), just make sure you index the rotors back on the studs the same way they were when you took it apart.

 

[mytoy]

I have a 78 L82 it still has the oringinal rotors, it has 123000 miles on it.I have owned it for about 12 years .

 

[iron cross]

Re: Re: Bad Bad

Hey Wally,

How often do you have the rotors resurfaced on that '62?:crazy

I`m glad you asked. If you ever looked at the Members Picture Gallery under wallyknoch and looked at my dealers invoice you will see that one of the RPO`s I ordered on the 62 was metallic brakes. At the present the car has only 30,000 miles on it. Probably the first 20,000 came with in the first two years. For example in this year 2003, I only drove it about 20 miles. My Sahara and Harleys get all the milage. Those are what i refer to as my freedom machines. But getting back to the Vette, I pulled it into my service center and said inspect my brakes and front wheel bearings as they had never been apart. Note {drum brakes} which I know you already knew that. MUCH to my suprise, everything was perfect. repacked the bearings and put the wheels back on. No I didn`t cut the drums. We do several brake jobs a week and we machine the drums and rotors on nearly all the jobs to prevent come backs from squealing pads and bouncing break pedals from out of round parts. If you can`t do it right the first time, how the hell are you going to find time to do it the second time. One point of interest here is that when we get them {customers} the cars are usually in bad shape. BUT Vette owners are usually more concerned about the maintance of their babys :BOW and take better care of them. I`m almost positive that this applys to the Forums members.

 

[gooney0]

Mine were too. I just had my rear rotors replaced (1972), and they were rivited on!

They lasted 31 years and 82,000 miles. Not bad!

I agree about NOT turning rotors. If it ain't broke....

I can't tell you how many times this happned to me:

1) replace brake pads
2) turn rotors which were fine.
3) Rotors warped
4) replace rotors, too thin to turn


Sadly I don't trust mechanics, and service writers work on commision.

-Gööney0