[NaomiMaHomie]

Just bought an '05 X with a 6 speed manual transmission. The guy I bought it from was less than honest when it came to the issues the truck has, so this will likely be the first of many posts with questions here, but the first thing I have to take care of is replacing the rotors, pads and calipers as they've seized after driving it for a day. Yay.

Anyway, I was under the truck yesterday and noticed that the rear brake dust shields are either totally rusted out or quickly moving in that direction. From the looks of the diagram from Nissan the parking brake is attached to this shield? Is that correct? I've also done some reading on this forum of people deleting these shields, anyone have any experience with this and know whether or not it's okay to run it without them? In the research I've done so far about finding new dust shields and replacing them it seems that they're super complicated to replace and also insanely expensive for what they are... Any chance the first gen dust shields would be the same? I'm pretty sure a local shop here has a wrecked one that I could try to convince them to pull if so... Just trying to figure out the best strategy moving forward

Lastly, some have said that you have to take the entire hub assembly apart to get the rotors off, and others have said that you don't. Any beta on this so I can save myself a bit of time?

Thanks in advance!

 

[IntellectualRedneck]

To answer a few of your questions.
Replacing rotors doesnt require taking apart hubs. Fairly straightforward to replace the front. The rear houses a small ebrake drum but it's not that much more work.

Replacing the dust shields is a PITA, not worth it if you can avoid it.

A lifetime in north east, my Xs dust shields are long gone. The extremities rust away until you're left with just the Inner part near the hub that the emergency brake drum shoes pins are held into. If they get really bad, the small slot holding the ebrake shoe pins rusts and enlarges the hole enough that it wont hold the pin anymore. You can inspect that when you change your brakes.

 

[NaomiMaHomie]

Thank you, I was guessing from the posts on here and the videos I watched on the rears that it'd be easier than my last truck.

If the inner shield has rusted so the slot holding the pins is gone, is that the point when I need to change them? Or is there a way to modify it so they're no longer needed? Trying to avoid spending the time and the money if I don't have to.