Bewildering Brake Issues

[camREEtrDEE]

So I have had an ongoing issue with the front brakes on my Exp. It’s a 1993 XLT 4WD. This gets confusing (and long winded) so please bear with me.

I was driving down the road and all of the sudden my passenger front brake became stuck about 40% applied. Pulled over to smell burning brakes, and see smoke coming out the passenger fender-well. I turned around, went home, replaced the calipers on both sides, the pads, and the rotors. Bled the system thoroughly. Drove the truck and the issue was mostly resolved but, I felt that the drivers front was now dragging a hair. They would get hot, and you could nearly smell them, but they don’t glaze and there was no smoke. My father-in-law, supposedly a great DIY mechanic, had the wonderful advice of “Well that’s normal, your brakes are going to get hot and drag when they are new. There is nothing wrong. It’s just an old truck.” The strange thing is, it would pull to the passenger side under braking, even though the drivers side was the one dragging slightly.

Fast forward two months later. Someone cuts me off and I have to hit my brakes a bit harder than normal. To make an already long story a bit shorter, the inner brake pad on the drivers side came out of the caliper, and wedged itself in between the rotor and dust shroud. I didn’t know this at the time, I just felt horrible vibration from that side when hitting the brakes, since my caliper piston was hitting the slots on my rotors. Upon investigation, my new brake pads are gone after less than 5k miles. That’s why the inner fell off. It was 1/2 inch thick of the metal backing. but only on the drivers side. The passenger side is still new looking. I will be replacing the caliper again, since it shattered the piston using the brakes to get home. (Again, I didn’t know my pads were gone.) So two questions.

Why would the dragging switch sides after both calipers were replaced.

What would the most likely culprit be? I have a new master cylinder I am going to install, but I am leaning towards a partially blocked brake line.

 

[Kesp4.0]

I’d say the hoses are shot. Cheap and easy fix

 

[BKennedy]

The caliper sliders have always been problematic. If they are not greased they will stick, causing your issue. I don't see how a brake line could cause a sticking caliper. The new calipers could be bad out of the box.

Did you bleed the brakes properly after changing the calipers? If you let the brake lines run dry, you are going go have issues due to air in the ABS pump. The pump would need to he power bled. Did you bleed all four lines, starting at the bleeder farthest from the master cylinder? I've had good luck with gravity bleeding. Crack a line and let it slowly drain for 30-45 minutes seems to work well for the 1st gens. You can also get bubbles out of the master cylinder by putting pressure on the brake pedal overnight. Use a board or whatever you have handy between the seat and pedal and come back in the morning. I would also run enough fluid through the system so it comes out nice and clean at the bleeders.

 

[massacre]

The soft brake lines can definitely cause a sticking caliper

 

[410Fortune]

What brand calipers?
Did you replace the slide pins? Those things wear out

95-97 ranger knuckles would give you dual piston calipers with no slide pins

Replace the master and the soft lines

 

[camREEtrDEE]

What brand calipers?
Did you replace the slide pins? Those things wear out

95-97 ranger knuckles would give you dual piston calipers with no slide pins

Replace the master and the soft lines

I believe they were Dynamic Friction. I know they aren’t the calipers because I had to replace the drivers again due to the damage, and it still has the issues. I was unaware you had to lubricate the pins since I thought they just held the caliper on. I just finished replacing the pads and damaged caliper, re-bled the system, and got all new slide pins+slathered the slide pins in high-temp grease. The wheels seem to spin free-er now, so I’ll see if it fixes the issue. I still have the new master I gotta put in anyways, and the brake lines are pretty cheap and easy to replace.

 

[410Fortune]

Google Search

High temp wheel bearing grease will work, I did them that way for years before I learned there is specific lube for this… ford makes it. Can also use permatex ceramic purple brake parts
Lube this stuff is great for servicing brake calipers and all Moving parts

Permatex 24125 Permatex Ceramic Extreme Brake Parts Lubricant | Summit Racing

Free Shipping - Permatex Ceramic Extreme Brake Parts Lubricant with qualifying orders of $109. Shop Brake Caliper Lubricants at Summit Racing.

www.summitracing.com

 

[Josh P]

That Permatex brake parts lube is great stuff. It lasts a long time without drying out.

 

[Chirko]

High temp wheel bearing grease will work, I did them that way for years

Lithium greases are good, but they collect dust. That's why there are special Teflon greases for brakes. They don't have this drawback.

 

[Chirko]

I was also told here on this wonderful forum that the best solution for the front brakes is to replace the front calipers with dual-cylinder calipers from another model. For me, it would be a quest to find such calipers, otherwise I would have done it this way. I completely disassembled and reassembled the calipers, replaced the pistons with steel ones and there is still some problem with the uniformity of braking. It's a good thing my truck doesn't have ABS on the front axle.

Now I learned about Permatex grease here. We use Ate, Liqui Moly, Bosch, TRW etc. All these greases are quite expensive, but they solve problems with the performance of the brake system.

In fact, you don't need to apply a lot of grease to the calipers. One coat is enough. And the saying "you can't spoil porridge with butter" does not apply in this case.

 

[410Fortune]

Yes the 95-97 ranger had dual piston calipers
Same caliper on 96-01 explorer and many other fords

You would need to source 95-97 ranger 4wd v6 front knuckles which mount at the upper and lower ball joint. These knuckles allow the use of the later caliper which uses metal slide
Bolts, dual pistons, a larger pad and a larger rotor. It is a fantastic upgrade to those early slide pin type single piston calipers.. but it does require some parts and some know how

You may want to consider new soft lines as mentioned above if you still have some side to side bias in your front braking

 

[Chirko]

You may want to consider new soft lines as mentioned above if you still have some side to side bias in your front braking

No. The hoses are fine. I replaced them right after buying the truck. Maybe a piston is jamming somewhere. But maybe the main brake cylinder is not in perfect health either. Sometimes when you press the brake pedal there is a slight jerk - as if the rod is resting and when you quickly press it again it goes away.

 

[FordFlintrock]

Lately I have had my fair share of inner brake pads not fitting into the caliper bracket on various vehicles. They are way too tight even after a thorough wire brushing of the brackets. In those cases I have resorted to a filing of the pad mounting ears for a nice well fitting non binding install. On those same vehicles the old inner pad had to be hammered out of the bracket with multiple blows.