Appreciation post: the brake disc job that took me 8 hours on a CRJ200

Honestly, I've been doing sheet metal and brake work for about 6 years now, but last Tuesday I hit a wall on a CRJ200 brake disc replacement. The inboard disc was seized onto the axle flange like it was welded there from the factory. I spent 4 hours just trying to break it loose with penetrating oil and a slide hammer, and nothing budged. Finally I grabbed a torch and heated the hub for a bit, then used a pry bar and some careful taps from a dead blow. It popped off after another 30 minutes, but by then I had already wasted my whole afternoon. The whole job ended up taking 8 hours when it should have been a 2 hour swap. Has anyone else run into seized brake discs that just refuse to come off no matter what you try?

3 comments

3 Comments

richard_young808d ago

Man that sounds exactly like the CRJ200 gremlin I fought last spring. Had a bird that sat in the rain for two months before I got to it and the inboard disc was practically fused to the axle flange. What finally worked for me after trying everything was putting a jack under the caliper bracket to take the weight off the axle, then using a bigger slide hammer with a bent tip to hook behind the disc and hit it from the side instead of straight on. The angle change made all the difference once I stopped trying to yank it straight off. Also a tip I picked up from an old timer is to spray the penetrating oil on the night before if you know you're doing brakes, just give it that extra time to soak in. Sounds like you got there in the end though, sometimes these jobs just turn into a whole day thing no matter how fast you are.

fiona_hunt718d ago

That's the thing with corrosion. It's not just on planes. I've seen it everywhere. Car brakes, trailer hitches, even a lawnmower deck I tried to fix last fall. The problem is always the same. You fight it head on, and it wins. But if you come at it from the side, get the angle right, give it time to soak, suddenly it gives up. It's like people. Sometimes you gotta approach them sideways too.

torres.blair4d agoMost Upvoted

Funny how that works. Sideways always gets better results than ramming it straight on.