I was reading in the FSM that the standard front calipers are torqued to the spindle with over 120 ft/lbs of torque. Most cars I've worked with had the bolts torqued to only 65-75 ft/lbs. I guess since the FM chassis uses alumninum, the torque has to be higher. Anyways, how easy is it to bust those bolts loose? 120 ft/lbs is pretty significant for a bolt that's tucked in a somewhat hard to access area. I have an 18" breaker bar, but no air tools. BTW, I'll be installing OEM Brembo blank replacements ($57 from the Tirerack).

 

Dave
You should be OK with breaking them loose.
I used a 6 point socket with an 18" breaker bar and remember it not being much of a problem, and IM old but" strong.

 

I got them on. Breaking the nuts loose wasn't much of an issue because Nissan put on metal clips to keep the bolts from seizing to the spindle. My biggest problem was getting the rotors off. They were seized on the hub and Nissan was stupid and didn't put threaded holes on the rotor so that you could thread in bolts to push the rotor off the hub. My wife's Altima and Legacy had the threaded holes as did my Maxima. Why didn't they do this on the FM chassis? Regardless, a couple of whacks with a 2lb sledge freed them from their rusty root.

 

How did i know you'd mention your maxima again...
*headshake*

Anyhow, glad you applied your sledge-hammer wisdom to knock the rotors free.

In the future, you may want to enlist the services of a rubber mallet.
Hitting a 2lb sledge hammer against your rotors isn't the brightest thing to do.

I'd expect more out of you DaveB.
*headshake*

 

You think I'm that dumb? Shall I show you a pic of rust left on my garage floor? I'm not some newbie installer, Jack. I have a whole slew of tools to choose from including a set of rubber mallets. Using a rubber mallet was useless. I pounded on the rotor for 5 minutes, front, back, while rotating. It wasn't budging. If I stuck to using a mallet, I'd still be working on getting the stock rotors off.