This Bearly Used Grizzly Grinder was for sale recently – Classified Site

Back in the early eighties when I first started working on front wheel drive cars, the Goodyear shop that I worked at got one of these Grizzly Grinders (sold by Bear). It was the newest best way at the time, to sort of machine rotors on the vehicle when doing a brake job. Actually it didn’t really machine the brake rotors, it would grind them. The Grizzly Grinder only worked on front wheel drive vehicles, since there was no built in motor to spin the rotors. The Grizzly Grinder was bolted on where the caliper goes, the grinding discs were adjusted and then you would run the car in drive trying to maintain around 35 miles per hour! Metal would fly and you’d better be sure you’ve got it adjusted right or the rotors would be ground unevenly in a hurry. This was definitely a job you didn’t want the customer to watch.

Ammco Brake Lathes.  Some brand names make you automatically think of certain products. Ammco is one of those brands that makes one thing come to mind…brake lathes. Ammco is one of the oldest and best known names in brake lathes and by far has more brake lathes in use today than any other manufacturer. Ammco was founded in 1922 and has an excellent reputation among professional auto technicians.

Not just Hondas. For several years there were some Honda cars that had rotors that were not easily removable from the hub. Sometimes bearing damage would occur when using the slide hammer to separate the rotor from the hub. Even if the bearings were not damaged, since the rotor was being machined without the hub, accuracy was sacrificed. That is one reason in the past that many repair shops wanted on the car brake lathes.

Preferred Method.  Due to possible variances in the car’s hubs, on the car brake lathes are the preferred way to machine rotors on any car today. When the rotor is machined off the vehicle no allowances are figured in for possible hub run-out. When using an on the car brake lathe, the run-out is checked before the machining begins. This insures the most accurate cut is obtained. When comparing on the car machining to turning rotors on a conventional brake lathe, the on the car brake lathe always yields better results, with a much higher likelihood that the rotors will not become warped as quickly over time.

I’m not sure when Bear stopped making the Grizzly Grinder, but I am sure that my Grizzly Grinder experience  is better left, somewhere back in the 80’s… If you’re looking for brake service tools for today browse our website.