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".

Hi cherokee owners. Came here to share something and hope you understand posting in this thread that was posted months long. This is the second time i heard this. The first time was on my jeep. what i did was that i replaced the drum brakes. here are some of the procedure i knew. First, Clean and lubricate anchor pin with hi-temp multi purpose grease. Then, clean and lubricate support plate shoe contact surfaces with hi-temp multi purpose grease. Next, Lubricate adjuster cable guides, adjuster screw and pivot, parking brake lever and lever pivot pin with hi-temp multi purpose grease. Attach parking brake lever to secondary brakeshoe with washer and new U-clip. Then, Remove wheel cylinder clamps. Secure shoes with new holddown springs, pins and retainers. Installation: # Install parking brake strut and spring. # Install guide plate and adjuster cable on anchor pin. # Install primary and secondary return springs. # Install adjuster cable guide on secondary shoe. # Lubricate and assemble adjuster screw Useful link: Jeep Cherokee repair

What type of brakes do you have on the rears? Drum or rotor? If you have drum brakes, DO NOT spray any kind of lubricant inside the brake drums. For drum brakes, there are places for specialized lubricants in the mechanisms, but the drum has to be removed to see these. The contact surfaces of the shoes and drums must be kept free of oils, etc. These work best when clean and dry. The squeal you are experiencing may be due to contaminants on the rubbing surfaces of the shoes. Hopefully, this will subside with use. If these brakes are not grabbing, continue to use them. Semi-metallic shoes tend to squeal more than the older types. If you have rotor type brakes, are you sure you are not hearing a 'sqeaker' built into the shoe that indicates a worn down pad. (Not all pads have squeakers. The only sure way to to check for wear is to inspect the pad thickness. Some rotor brake designs have a provision for checking the pad without disassembly.)

If you have shoe brakes in the rear, check out the self adjusters therein. These may be jammed and need to be cleaned and lubricated. After freeing up and cleaning the adjusters, re-assemble the drums and ajust the shoe brakes. Then check the fluid resevoir on the master cylinder and top off if needed. After the first application of the brakes, the shoe brakes may not be returing fully and the next time you apply the brakes, all seems well. But, with road shocks, the shoes may drift all the way back to their stops and then it will take extra pedal movement to push them against the drums. Also, you may have a parking brake cable that is draging in its housing. It should be free to slide. If not, replace. While you are into the brakes, inspect the return springs. if these are in bad shape, replace.