I have a sever pull to the left while braking. It's not random, you can count on it to happen every time. And tons of brake dust build-up on the LF wheel.
When I first noticed it I had my rotors turned and put new brake pads on the front.
The pull went away for a while and has since came back and over the past 3 months I've been fighting it. Since the pull has come back I have replaced calipers, pads, and drop lines.
I do not think the truck is out of alignment. The tires wear evenly and it drives straight at any speed. It is just when I am on the brakes it pulls left.
I have the front brake system disassembled and I am making sure there are no kinks in the lines and that everything moves smoothly.
Questions:
What do you think is causing the pull?
What is the purpose of the pins that the calipers bolt to? When I took it apart about 30 minutes ago I noticed the top pin still had a rubber boot on it and slid in and out smoothly while the lower pin did not have a boot, was dry, and did not slide in or out smoothly.
When I compress the caliper back to zero is/can brake fluid supposed to leak around the piston?
Sounds like the caliper with the dry pin is not sliding correctly likes it's supposed too, causing the other to do more work, which is causing your pull. Lube the slider pins and get a boot back on the lower one.
I cleaned and polished both pins, greased them up, and replaced the pads.
Everything released nice sitting in the driveway but once I drove it it still pulled the same.
After a short drive I checked to see if there was a temp. difference in the rotors and by feel it didn't seem as if one was hotter than the other. My laser temp reader is dead so no exact numbers.
right... which is why the past few days I have paid much more attention to the left.
What gets me is how violent it is though. I would think that even the smallest change (calipers, pads, rotors, drop lines) would atleast make a difference but it doesn't seem to help.
I have a guy coming to look at my truck in a few days and I'm guessing it will be pretty hard to sell a truck for my asking price when it darts across the road everytime you hit the brakes.
I have replaced the front pads 3-4 times since I have owned the truck but have yet to replace the rear.
I have new pads for the rear but have not put them in yet. Do you think that having worn out pads in the rear would cause this? I personally don't think so but it could be a possibility.
Pretty sure its ABS, Just a thought maybe the left one is working perfect. Possible the right one is stuck open not applying any brake?? Now the the rears are probably shot you are stopping %100 of your load with the front left brake only?? that would make a lot of heat a violent pull to the left & tons of brake dust. Be sure your brake load adjuster is hooked up in the rear. Hooks from the axle to a valve to apply more rear brake when u have a load on the truck, drivers side behind the fuel tank. Hope this helps!
All I accomplished today was dissassemble and check everything on the LF. What I have read, and what you have just said, that the left may be doing the braking and the right is in a bind may be a possiblity.
If the RF isn't braking then I would assume that the pads would not be as worn and the LF's were. This I will check tomorrow.
I have been doing some research on other forums and it seems as if new caliper brackets and pins fixed most of the problems.
So.... Tomorrow I will be ordering a set. Anyone got any suggestions? I can either go to O'Riellys or order online. I found them online at Discout Brakes for $26 each.
I changed every brake part on the front of my truck and still get the pull to the left. New pins, brackets, calipers, pads, rotors, and lines. Same thing still happens. I hope you can figure it out. Mine is so random though, it will go a month without doing it, then do it like crazy.
I'm thinking if you have a pin stuck that is part of your problem though.
Mine did the exact same thing, in a left turn a VIOLENT (like almost jerk the wheel out of your hands) and it would continue to pull to the left for a few seconds, then re-center and be fine for a month or two.
I was very concerned that it would do it on I-77 in WV at 80 mph. It only did it on or after a left turn while taking off from a stop. Never on the highway or at high speeds or even in a right hand turn.
I thought brakes as well, looked it all over....nothing. It was in the steering box. I have one here from an 01 (ZF6 donor truck), if you need it give me a hollar. Next time I head north I will give it to you to see if it fixes the problem.
Edit: To clarify....it felt like hitting a deep rut on a Ford 9N and getting knuckle phuked.
It doesn't really have anything to do with turning on mine Andy, it can do it coming up to a stop sign or light, and sometimes its violent and sometimes it isn't. The longer I've been driving the harder it gets sometimes, and it also seems to do it more when I've got my trailer on.
Well thats surprising... After almost 3 years of owning my truck I have yet to check the rear brakes. I have both calipers off and the pads have tons of material left on them. They have warn down about 1/8" compared to the new pads.
I compressed the pistons back in and then pressed the brake pedal a couple times and the pistons seem to be working just fine.
The slide pins have zero bind in them. They slide in and out very smoothly.
I'm now going to bleed them for sh!t and giggles just to see if there is any air in the lines.... I have a hand pump so would this be OK to do with the calipers off?
And should I go ahead and replace the pads since I have new ones and I know the ones on there have been on there for a while...
Either there was a chit ton of air going to the RR or there is a seal broken... I pumped and pumpd until my hand started cramping and only filled up half a can. (+-4fl.oz)
Besides pins, calipers, rotors, etc etc that can cuase a pull here’s what I found out from a TDS guy FMTRVT (former ford brake engineer) a Lot of good info from him.
The brakes are very susceptible pulling and the material used from OEM pads is matched based on batches just so each side is exactly a like. He suggested flipping half the pads left to right (inside ones) this trick finally got mine straight… Along with new roters, new hoses, new pads, new rotors, reman calipers, and pads (needed them on the rear)
And he stated rear brakes can be the cause of a pull.
I know TDS is a bad word over here (at least these days since the sell out…) but there is a lot of good info from him!
He said that there is a valve in the ABS block (infront of driver side battery) that can stick an it causes the LF brake to be overfed... HMMM...
Smitty... Have you done anything with the ABS block? IF there is a valve that can stick, yours may just be binding up every so often that causes your "randomness".
Worth a try to swap inside pads (worked for me) My battle went on for months...
Heck I even moved the pull right to left by switching pads, rotor etc just to see if I could get it to move.. it did. Then on the last set of pads it came again and I switched inside pads and been fine since.
After checking everything in the rear and replacing the pads I drove about 30 miles south to pick up caliper mounts and new slide pins.
Changing pads and bleeding the rear calipers did not affect it.
I got home and started working on the front again and when I tore down the RF i seen that the pins have seized up and there was barely any wear on the pads.
So I changed the bracket, greased up the pins, replaced the pads and put it all back together. I'm hoping that the seized pins was my problem.
Good to hear it's better,
They really need to be balanced, might work it's way out but you might try the flipping half that pads. Heck after I had taking my brakes apart so many times trying to figure mine out I think I could have done it blind folded thank god for air-tools
LOL... I know what you mean. I've had them apart at least 4-5 times this past week. I managed to get the RF dissassembled and reassesembled with all new parts in less than 30 minutes just a bit ago. I kind of surprised myself.
I'm going to replace the caliper mount and pins on the LF tomorrow after work and give the pads a couple days to wear in.
If i still have a pull then I will swap the inner pads. After that I don't know wtf to do.
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