Frustrated with Brakes! Need Advice

[shorthorn]

Gotta vent yall... I live in Illinois and like a good boy follow the law to a T with my 05 2500 having D plates on it and getting safety inspections every 6 months. At my last inspection (first since buying truck) the inspector passed the truck but noted that I needed to get the parking brake working before my inspection due by the end of June.

Note: my brakes worked perfectly before this all began, and had alot of wear left!

So a week ago, I pulled the rear end of the truck apart for what I had hoped was a simple adjustment of the parking brake shoes. What i found was the Previous owner had gutted the shoes and hardware completely for the parking brake, so I decided to order the parts from Rock Auto and began reassembling the rear brakes.

As I was putting the drivers side back together the friction material seperated from the backing plate.. Great, new pads. I got new pads and threw them on, as I needed to haul some hay on Sunday. Saturday evening I pull the truck out to go to my son's little league game.. Drive 3 miles to the park, drivers rear brake smoking like its on fire! Great.. Now the caliper is seized up! So yesterday I went and got a new caliper, all was going well reassembling this time. As I was setting the caliper in place I noted the banjo fitting on the brake line was alittle wet and dripped one drop of brake fluid on the rotor... I take it off, reclean the banjo fitting, reseat the copper washers, retighten, then go to clean the brake fluid off the rotor... Rotor is cracked in two spots from the hub up all the way across the area the pads ride on... Great, now new rotors.. and the banjo fitting is still leaking!

I ordered the new mopar rotors last night... waiting for them to come in...

What the hell did I do wrong? I have done brakes on hundreds of vehicles and never had this kind of issue.

What is the proper way to run the calipers back when installing new pads? I wanted to open the bleeder and push them back with a C clamp but the bleeder was froze, so I just slowly pushed them back... What is the proper way on these Dodges? Might this have caused the caliper to sieze?

How the heck do you get these banjo fittings at the caliper to seal? I don't know what else to do besides maybe get a new brake line????

 

[cerberusiam]

Any time you push the pistons back in these calipers you run the risk of them jamming. The composite pistons deteriorate with heat and use, crid builds up inside and outside the piston leaving the possibility for something to come loose and stick the piston. There is a good reasona lot of places will not replace just pads but rather require a loaded caliper, the cahnces for failure, and as you say, collateral damage is too high. Replacing pads almost requires new calipers or rebuild the existing ones with new seals and pistons and a thorough cleaning\honing.

If you cannot get a bleeder open pull the line before compressing the pistons. Better yet get a replacement caliper. NEVER push fluid back on these systems. Aside form the fact you push potentially contaminated fluid back into a precision system, the ABS controller, back pressure will royally screw up the ABS pump and\or controller. Mess that piece up and you add considerable cost to a simple brake job. Again, the potential for collateral damage is very high.

You need new copper washers for the banjo bolt connection. If you are licky you MIGHT get new ones to seal. More often than not a leaking one will not reseal without new washers.

Basically, when you do brake pads highly consider new or quality reman calipers at the same time. That will avoid most of the common problems and get you new copper washers.

A brake system flush is also a good thing to do whne brakes are done. Brake fluid draws and holds water which will cause rust and buildup. In these systems with ABS it is CRITICAL to keep the fluid clean or there will be problems

 

[shorthorn]

Thanks Cerberusiam,

I will remember not to just force the calipers back.. not sure why I didn't think to just crack the line.. oh well, lesson learned.

I did work some more last night on trying to get the caliper to seal... no luck with the new washers even after doing alot of cleaning on the mating surfaces.

I will go get some more new sealing washers... maybe these new ones are garbage that came with the caliper... if that don't work I guess I will take the caliper back for exchange.

Thanks again.

 

[cerberusiam]

Yep, I have had to return calipers because the mating surface was messed up. A chisel mark in the surface is not going to seal well, I mean geez!

Once the copper washer form to a surface it is problematic to get them to seal right again. Also make sure the threads are good all the way in and the bolt goes in straight. Anothe rporblem I have had on remans when they try to clean up stripped threads.

 

[shorthorn]

Just an update... The caliper that I was stuggling to get to seal "sealed itself up" the other day... I did change the other caliper now I am fighting getting it to seal.. I think the washers they send are just garbage. I was able to get all the brakes working and the parking brakes are again installed.

I have to pull it apart, hopefully for the last time, tonight... the backing plates that were horribly mangled... I was able to beat them back into shape enough that the parking brakes are again functional, however they are rubbing on the rotors, so I gotta do some trimming.

Hopefully we are nearly done with this mess... I wanna drive this truck!

 

[mweiman]

Where are you at in Illinois that requires an inspection?

 

[BIGNASTY]

Will agree with Cerb ( I do this because he can make you look like a stooge if you don't agree with him )

When I do the brakes on any of our equipment, I pull the lines a let the old NASTY fluid out here in MT it seems to pick up tons of water.

I use these products, the best on the Market (for the home wrench bender) IMO to flush and replace the NEW fluid in the system.

http://www.motiveproducts.com/

As far as pushing the pistons back into the caliper. I have my own thoughts on that one. Yes if not done incorrectly IMO you can **** them up the point that they are FUBAR and will need new ones, ask my Son and Nephew they have done it. They used a piece of wood and a large C clamp to push them back in. When I do mine I use the same method but use a pretty thick piece of steel to push the pistons back in evenly. Seems as if the wood lets them go back in half-cocked and scored the pistons and then the seals were ****ed up. AND ITS NOT A CONTEST TO SEE HOW FAST IT CAN BE DONE. slow is better and less stress on things that are basically WORKING BACKWARDS when this is done.

On the power bleeder I use LOTS-O-BRAKE FLUID, Im sure that when I get done with the job, that there is ABSOLUTELY NO OLD BRAKE FLUID IN THE SYSTEM!!


Its not the Holy Grail, its just the way that I have done it and living in the mountains pulling weight on trailers, I cant afford to screw this up!!! So far So good and have OEM calipers and MANY NEW BREAK PAD CHANGES on this way of doing it.