Rotor spec for your car is 1.102 nominal, 1.024 minimum thickness. That means when machining my preference is to not go closer than .030 of the discard or 1.054 for the unofficial minimum machining thickness. Rotors of course can be machined off the car and have been for decades. However the preferred method for your car is to machine them on the car. That provides automatic correction for any wheel hub run-out. That's one of the reasons they are fastened to the hub with those two screws. The other reason of course is so that during initial assembly they don't fall off on the assembly line before the calipers are installed. But when you need to remove them, how does a tech do it? I have two methods. One is an impact screwdriver that operates by inertia. There are spiral groves in between the inner and outer portions of the tool, and when you hit it with a hammer and force it to collapse, the inertia of the outer half not wanting to start turning, forces the inner section to try t turn and tighten or loosen a screw depending on the tools setting. Almost every motorcyle tech will be familliar with this tool, they have existed since the 60's at the least. In fact mine is probably the oldest tool in my tool box, having purchased it in the early 70's. But it does not always work, sometimes the screws are simply too tight, and I break the screwdriver bit pretty often. That forces me to use the second method, which ruins the screw. I take a large center punch, and start by making a deep pin hole into the edge of the screw, without hitting the rotor. Once the hole is there, I move the punch to an angle to force the screw to turn by driving it with the punch and hammer. With practice this is really simple and has never failed to remove one of those screws. On a few occasions I have even been able to re-use them. Lastly, 1 1/16" translates to approximately 1.060 (about .030 for 1/32) IMO you would not have been able to machine those rotors successfully, as they would be getting too thin to allow for enough material to deal with the heat generated by braking. Plus six years old on a vented rotor, the rust that builds up in the middle cooling vanes prevents the rotor from cooling efficiently. Plus, the same rusting makes the rotor structurally weaker and prone to "crushing" which is one of the primary causes of rotor thickness variation. All those things together make it unadviseable to have not replaced these rotors when doing the brakes. At the same time we haven't talked about how good the calipers really are, and the caliper slides, how free are they? What about the rear brakes, did you check them? The parking brake assembly? How is the fluid, should it have been flushed? There is so much more to replacing brakes, than just simply slamming a set of pads. That's why you will never see my quote things like the "$99.00 brakes, additional work extra routine".

First you are correct about the fact that if you want to lock up the brakes you should be able to do that. The parking brake when you try it should be able to lock up the rear brakes and slide the wheels. So the question arrises, why can't you? First check. Pump the brake pedal about five times and hold it, memorizing how much pressure your placing on the pedal, and how far from the floor the pedal is. (You can use your other foot for a gage if you want to). Now release the brake pedal and wait about ten seconds. Step on the pedal a single time, using the pressure that you think you did when you held the pedal a few moments earlier, and see how high the pedal is from the floor. Is it exactly in the same place? Is the pedal lower? Memorize the pressure your applying, and the height of the pedal, and quickly pump it three times, and see if the pedal height changes. If the pedal ended up at the smae point each time, then your adjustment of the rear brakes is correct, and you don't have any air in the system. If the pedal height incresed when you pumped the brakes, then you could either have an adjustment situation, or still have air in the system. Next step. Apply brake with same pressure as before. Without releasing the pedal, start the engine. Vacuum from the engine should cause the booster to begin to assist you in applying the brakes, and you will feel the pedal fall from your foot. Maintain the same pedal pressure, and see how much further the pedal travels. It takes some experience to feel when this assist is sufficient, but at least you can tell if you indeed have assist or not. A bad booster, or vacuum problem will only give you about an inch or less of pedal travel increase. You will need to investigate the cause if you don't get a good assist. The next possibility requires an assistant. Put the car up on jacks and jackstands with all four wheels off the ground. Put the transmission in neutral. Pump the pedal three to five times to bleed off booster vacuum. Now have an assistant start to lightly press on the brake pedal while you turn the LF wheel by hand. Keep telling the assistant to increase pedal pressure slowly until you cannot turn the wheel with a moderate effort. have the assistant memorize the pedal travel at that point. Release the brake pedal, and repeat the process at the right front wheel. Now do it again for both of the rear wheels. The pair of front wheels should take the same pedal travel, and the rear wheels will each take slightly more than the front in most circumstances. All four should not need to have the pedal pushed more than half way before you cannot turn the wheel. Having made all of these checks, and not making any errors, you are now faced with the likelyhood that you have glazed linings, or at least linings with poor friction characteristics. All of the linings, the rotors, and drums may need replaced on a vehicle this old. Remember to include the hardware for the calipers, as well as the brake shoe hold down, and return springs (Maxipack). Make sure that if you replace the pads and shoes, use top of the line components, thats the only way your going to make sure you have something that should perform correctly. If all of this looks like a lot for doing something as "simple" as brakes, ""you aint seen nothing yet"". Lock-up charateristics, and point of lock-up are aspects that even as techs we normally do not have to concern ourselves with because normally the cars are engineered well enough that they almost always work. We only run into problems like that when we are dealing with improper materials, contaminated materials or the very rare, failed proportioning (or combination) valve. We actually have tools available that allow us to remove the bleeder screws, and directly measure the brake fluid pressure. Some shops have tools that fit in the caliper in place of the brake pads and rotors, in order to measure the systems ability to squeeze the pads and rotors. All in all it can be extremely complex especially when we have to deal with the opposite complaint of an early lock-up, or an antilock brake issue which essentially adds an entire system on top of everything else I have already mentioned here. I hope this helps. If there is any doubt, take it to a real pro to have this checked.

You may have a worn serpentine drive belt that is slipping or worn out. First, check its tension to see if it up to speciications, and if not, tighten to spec. If that that does not take of the problem, inspect the belt. The flat serpentine belt has several small "v"s on the drive side. These function the same way that the older fashion single v-belt did, only these are smaller and more of them. Only the Vs should contact the sheaves; the backing should ride above the sheave ridges. When the Vs wear enough to let the backing ride on the sheave (pulley), the V sides looses their grip and the belt slips. Its worn out at that point - replace the belt. To get a view of the belt fit on the sheave, use an inspection mirror and a light. Naturally, this inspection is accomplished with the engine stopped. Sometimes, the sheave (pulley) can give a clue. If the belt has been riding and slippng on the ridges of the sheave, these edges may show evidence of such contact. Normally, these ridges do not contact the belt have oxidation tarnish.

Still laughing, mr.hvac. We don't have a kitty or a piggy, but it sure sounds like one got his tail caught under the rocking chair. The squealing sound is becoming more constant now, but DH is ignoring it. Maybe he believes in the power of prayer more than the furnace repair guy. It's cold and snowy in Indy and I hope the furnace doesn't die on us. If it does die, I'll have another opportunity to say "I told you so"! DH justs loves that phrase. Oh, the furnace is a Bryant which is about 4 years old. It has always rattled. Looks funny also since the Bryant face plate is upside down. We've always wondered about that.