Wheel Bearing Fail! Rotor Recomendations?

[Opie Knievel]

On my way home I noticed a roar from my Left Front wheel. When I got home I took the rotor off to inspect the wheel bearings and found that the outer bearing had came apart and the race has worn a groove in the rotor causing the race to wobble around. So, I need a replacement rotor. I work at a salvage yard so I have access to a bunch of S-10 Pickups and Blazers. Will the 99-04 2WD S-10's and Blazer rotors work on our spindles? Are they the same size? Should I see if any other yards on our delivery route have a rotor from a G-Body they could send back with our driver? (We don't keep older cars on the yard, except for 1 stray '66 Impala. Will that rotor work?) Should I buy a new rotor? If so what brand would you recommend? I haven't had very good luck with new, aftermarket rotors lately so I was leaning towards the used route but if someone here knows of a good brand that they have experience with, I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for reading.

 

[565bbchevy]

I would play it safe and just buy new ones from a local auto store or even online if you can what.
For something as important as stopping I would not want to use junkyard parts.

 

[UNGN]

Modern S10 2wd blazers use sealed bearings. You'd need to swap in the whole spindle/rotor/caliper.

This gets you 11" brakes and 2 piston calipers. Swap in new rotors and pads and you are set.

 

[Texas82GP]

On my way home I noticed a roar from my Left Front wheel. When I got home I took the rotor off to inspect the wheel bearings and found that the outer bearing had came apart and the race has worn a groove in the rotor causing the race to wobble around. So, I need a replacement rotor. I work at a salvage yard so I have access to a bunch of S-10 Pickups and Blazers. Will the 99-04 2WD S-10's and Blazer rotors work on our spindles? Are they the same size? Should I see if any other yards on our delivery route have a rotor from a G-Body they could send back with our driver? (We don't keep older cars on the yard, except for 1 stray '66 Impala. Will that rotor work?) Should I buy a new rotor? If so what brand would you recommend? I haven't had very good luck with new, aftermarket rotors lately so I was leaning towards the used route but if someone here knows of a good brand that they have experience with, I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for reading.

I agree with your suspicion of the parts house rotor. My brother-in-law has about a 10 year old Ranger. He had a shop rip him off on a front brake job and the bastards couldn't even properly adjust the front wheel bearings. I ended up putting rotors and bearings on it to fix it. One of the cheap Chinease house brand rotors had a loose outer bearing race in it. The race would just slip in and out. Lousy machining tolerances. I ended up staking the race and it turned out fine but I wouldn't buy that junk. I suggest buying the premium new rotor if you are going to buy new. It will be Chinese also but hopefully the quality will be better. We used Powerstop on my brother's 78 Z28. They were China but the quality was fine. I don't think there are any USA rotors anymore. If you do go with a used rotor, which I'm not crazy about that idea, have it miked (sp?) and turned.

 

[Opie Knievel]

I would play it safe and just buy new ones from a local auto store or even online if you can what.
For something as important as stopping I would not want to use junkyard parts.

Is there a certain brand you would recommend? The reason I ask is because the last time I put brakes on my fiance's car, an 03 Impala, I went through 3 different sets off new rotors (including a set of AC Delcos) before putting on a low mileage set out of the yard and curing the front end shake while braking. It seems like all of the new ones we bought were junk. One set lasted about 5 minutes. On the test drive after putting them on a bunch of deer ran out into the road and I had to stop pretty quick. I warped the rotors on that 1 hard stop.

Modern S10 2wd blazers use sealed bearings. You'd need to swap in the whole spindle/rotor/caliper.

This gets you 11" brakes and 2 piston calipers. Swap in new rotors and pads and you are set.

I feel like such an idiot. I knew that. I have researched the Blazer spindle swap pretty thoroughly. It was pretty late when I made this post. I meant to say the S-10's and Blazers before the sealed bearings. The ones that are set up like our cars.

I would prefer to use new if I could find a brand that would hold up for a while. I want to get the car back together fairly quickly as it is my daily driver. I have a couple spares to drive but there's nothing like driving the Monte Carlo.

Thanks for the responses. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Texas82GP]

I think you would be ok with Powerstop which you can get from RockAuto. You should be ok with Wagner from O'Reilly.

 

[Opie Knievel]

I think you would be ok with Powerstop which you can get from RockAuto. You should be ok with Wagner from O'Reilly.

I will check on those brands when I rebuild the front end this winter. (Hopefully) For now, I found a good rotor at work off a 95 S-10. Hollander interchange says it will work. I also grabbed a set of upper control arms with good bushings from a 48k mile '03 Sonoma. I'm hoping this will keep the car on the road till I'm ready to rebuild the front end with new parts. I'll probably just put stock replacement parts on till I can afford to do a high performance build.