BFH Time!

I own a 1995 Chevrolet Caprice 9C1. For those of youwho don't know what that is, it is a cop car. It's built a little tougher than the Impala and with a little elbow grease and paint, looks just as sharp. I bought it for a project car, my 'go fast grocery getter'. I wanted something we could ride around comfortably in, but would still smoke Mustangs. It is a bad ass sleeper right now, because as we all know, when you have the time to work on something like that, you don't have the money and when you have the money, you ain't got no damn time. It became my daily driver due to circumstances out of my control and is now in need of some brake work. Which I jumped into with some gusto this AM.

First set of new shoes in the back go on like butter. Car up, tire off, caliper off, new shoes on, reverse process. Easy cheesy.

Second set, now this here is where she decided to be a bitch.

I need a new rotor, I can tell with my Mk 1 Optical Measurement System (calibrated eyeball) that there is not enough material to turn the rotor down to the nice shiny surface you need for good brakeage. So the old one has to come off. Get the lock washers off (this is bad, because it means they've never been removed since the car was built!), release the e-brake cable, and start pinging away with a nice soft brass mallet. Rust falling out of the SOB like snow, but I'm not concerned. It's got 120,000 miles, it is going to be a dirty girl.

Now to preface, this particular GM unit has hybrid rear brakes. The 9C1 SEO has rear disc brakes making it different from the stock Caprice, which had drums. The hybrid portion is the emergency brake is a small drum brake on the interior with discs on the outside for regular braking. I call it a hybrid because I have never seen it before I owned this monster. My last Chevy was a 71 C10 pickup that ran like a scalded dog. Drums for Daddy, not this newfangled shit.

Anyway, start working on getting this thing off but to no avail. I call my buddy who is a triple certiffied ASE master mechanic (who I should have let do this in the first place, but I digress), and he starts trolling through the GM how-to database.

What does my mechanic buddy tell me?

Buy the $200 GM slide hammer to work it off easily. Or if you just ain't gonna spend it, apply some serious force with a Big Frickin' Hammer.

Caveman Time!!!!!