How hard is it to change the rotors, front and back? The repair manuals all seem to shy away from any description of this. I am handy but never tried this before. Is it something I should or should not attempt?
seem to shy away from any description of this.
The aftermarket manuals are junk. (Surprise...) I have a 99 E-250 and the Haynes was worthless, they don't even show the right calipers. The rotors go off and on easily enough, nothing special.
Hand-packing bearings is a lost art - but the "automatic bearing packing tools" (two cones, a clamp screw and a zerk fitting) waste a ton of grease. Learn to hand-pack and you'll save a half-pound of grease per set, no kidding. It's a blob of grease in the palm of your off hand, and you hold the bearing with your dominant hand and scrape the bearing across the blob with the wide-side slot down. Shove the grease in the wide end and watch it ooze out around and through the rollers on the other end.
The important thing is the bearing preload. You need one of the little 1/4" drive "clicker" torque wrenches to get a reading of IIRC either 20 or 25 INCH-pounds (around 2 foot-pounds) of torque on the spindle nut while spinning the wheel in the normal direction of travel. Then you back off, do it again and put the castle cage on and the cotter pin in.
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