The brake disc is sandwiched

> between the hub and the wheel instead of the proper and correct

> position, bolted to the back of the hub. Since the 70's, car

> companies have been shedding pounds here and there to increase their

> CAFE numbers. That was subject a long time ago on OPINIONS.

I have a couple of experiences with the maintenance unfriendly design of the disc bolted to the back side of the hub, rather than the front side. I prefer the disc installed over the studs. When the disc is installed on the back side of the hub, as on some some 4X4s, the car becomes very labor expensive to do brake work on. You should stop by and help the next time I replace the rotors on my Toyota FJ60. I might add that the Plymouth mini-van which my wife used to own had the rotors installed over the studs, and that design on mini-vans worked well and had no reputation for brake shimmy.

When I worked for Hyster, they bought the drive axle assemblies for one series of lift truck from Rockwell. The brakes were drum brakes on a full floating axle, and the early design had the drum installed on the back side of the hub. The later design axle had the drum installed over the wheel studs, which meant considerably less labor to do brake work.