Hello everyone! I've been lurking on these forums for a couple of weeks now, going through page after page of posts learning all I can. I've been an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force for a number of years, but my experience in working with cars and trucks is somewhat limited. So I apologize in advance for my noobiness!

Anyway, my brother recently gave me his 97 1500 Sport 4X4 w/ 5.9L. It's got 186,100 miles on the od and seems to run great so far. I did have to replace the cat and exhaust and change out the rotors and brake pads.

That leads me to my question. I've done brakes before on other vehicles and figured these would be just as straight forward. Took the wheels off, took the calipers off, replaced the pads, replaced the rotors, bled the brakes and so forth. Drives great and brakes smoothly and quickly. Shortly afterwards I bought the Haynes manual and as I was reading through it, I came to the section on rotor replacement. It states in the manual that on the '99 and earlier 4X4 models you have to separate the rotor from the hub and then refers to another section on how to do so. That section doesn't ever refer to the rotor directly, just gives instructions on how to remove the hub assembly.

I guess my question is, did I do this incorrectly (rotor replacement)? When I took the calipers off, the rotors just slid freely of the studs. I installed the new ones by just sliding them onto the studs and installing the calipers. Everything seems fine braking wise, but in talking with a good friend of mine who worked as a mechanic for a number of years, he stated that the rotor should have been bolted to the hub assembly. But, I don't see how it even could be. Is the manual referring to a different model perhaps?

Anyway, thanks in advance for any help!

 

You did it correct. The dana 60 on the 3/4 and 1 tons are different on that year.

 

^what he said. dana 44 (1500) slips on. dana 60 (2500/3500) bolts on.

welcome to DF.

 

One of the perks to owning a 1/2 ton. With the brakes done, check the tie rod ends and control arm bushings. Mines a 97 also and had to replace most of it this last month.

 

Mine also slide right off. As newman1367 said, it depends what year you have.

 

Thanks for the replies guys! I was 99.8% sure there wasn't anything wrong, but I kept getting "50/50" responses from people I talked too. That is, half would say "its correct" and the other half would say "no, you did it wrong." But what you guys said makes sense.

Next up, I need to check the plenum. I learned all about it from reading this site and when I asked my brother about it, he had no idea what I was talking about. Pretty sure it will need to be swapped out with the Hughes plate. The U-joints and ball joints need to be replaced and I'm guessing I have a vacuum leak as I learned from driving it that the cruise control doesn't work, it wont shift in to 4 wheel drive and the A/C cuts out and starts to blow out the defrost vents when accelerating. Oh and the heater core is shot.

Other than that, she runs fine! :P I really can't complain though, the truck was free!

 

I personally would suggest getting the ebay plenum plate kit. Comes with the plate and bolts. A LOT cheaper than the Hughes plate.