2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission intermittent brake pull AGAIN!

[98rammer]

i replaced both calipers about 20,25k miles ago. i also adjusted the proportioning valve so the rear brakes are doing some work (rear pads looked new at 100k miles). that helped it to stop nice and straight after i did the calipers. now the right front is starting to pull again. what is going on here? obviously moisture will get into the caliper and start to rust, but it gets real annoying to have to turn the wheel to the left 45* because it pulls so hard to the right sometimes. and like i said... it's intermittent



Tom

 

[Joe G.]

Remove the pins that the caliper slides on. Clean and lube them with high temp brake grease. I do this every time I change oil. The caliper slide areas on the mount should be filed a little and greased with the same grease. It's a good idea to manually adjust the rear brakes at oil change time. The so called automatic adjusters work when they want to. If one side of the rear brakes is brakeing more than the other that will also cause pull. If this does not fix it you may have a sticking caliper piston. Inspect the pad thickness. They should be the same for both sides of the truck. One pad in a caliper will wear a little more than the other, but not much unless something is sticking.

 

[98rammer]

i can put some anti-seize on the pins, but i fear it maybe the piston itself. however, with about only 20,000 miles on them, i'd hope that they aren't shot. do you think that the caliper itself is sticking on the pins causing enough pressure to give me the bad brake pull?

 

[WBusa]

Sigh, I have a pull problem too, now. Have had the truck about 6 months now, and never had occasion to stomp on the brakes. But yesterday I did (while road-testing the new Coopers), and I practically had to set the left turn signal the pull was so bad. Scared the bejabbers out of me. Anyway, after reading all the threads on this subject I've adjusted the rears (they were fine), have lightly filed the front caliper slides, and have cleaned and greased the slides and pins with hi-temp caliper grease. Still pulls sharply to the left when you stomp on it (no noticable pull during normal braking). Dang. Anyway, next I intend to install some Bilsteins, since the current shocks look like they probably came with the truck back in '94, and one of the rears is visibly leaking. I tend to believe that a suspension problem can magnify an otherwise insignificant brake problem.



Is there anything else I should be looking at? The front end and steering are good... not great, but for a '94 Dodge Ram darn good. The tire shop guy said the next thing he'd look at would be the master cylinder if it was his truck. Does this make sense? And how would I determine if there's a problem with the master cylinder?

 

[Joe G.]

Mine used to pull pretty bad on a hard stop. Very uneven pad wear too. Since I've been doing what I describe above it will stop in a straight line. The pad wear is even too. A couple of stops were panic, don't hit the deer, stops from 70 MPH. The last one like that was really close. If the deer had not stepped forward a little bit I would have got him.

 

[98rammer]

i'm going to put some anti-seize on in a couple hours to see if that helps any. the worst thing is when one front side locks up in the snow, not good for stopping.

 

[RustyJC]

My 96 3500 roasted the right front when I got stuck in Houston traffic pulling a 5th wheel RV. It had been pulling to the right for a few hundred miles previously (my bad for not fixing it then, but it was a V-10 and I didn't know about the TDR and had no info on sticking calipers. ) It was due to the caliper sticking on the pins.



Rusty

 

[KevinLewis]

I too am having this bad pull to. Mine only does it when i start using the brakes alot. Gets them hot. There is a 27 page long TSB on this that covers alot of different stuff to look at. I will try the slides first and then new calipers.

 

[98rammer]

i put some anti-seize on the pins and so far today it hasn't pulled. we'll see.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

98rammer glad you're getting it resolved. I heard caliper grease is specific for that use and different than antisieze (not sure though).



I know NAPA carries a better caliper pin for our trucks and guys with brake pull problems have had good success solving their issues with the NAPA parts.



My truck pulls to the left but it's due for a brake job which will entail new calipers, rotors, and the NAPA pins.



Vaughn

 

[wcjp]

It doesn't take much dirt to seize the caliper. Have you inspected the brake lines? Is there any crimped or worn areas? These need to be in the same shape. If one is bad I recommend changing out both. Also, don't forget to completely flush the system as routine maintenance.

 

[bubba_PA]

Make sure that it's not just the fronts. I thought I had the same problem with violent pulling. Finally got around to pulling rear drums off and one side full of gear lube from a bad seal. New seal, bigger wheel cylinders, new shoes and cleaned up drums and she stops on-a-dime, not around it.



Paul

 

[Dartman]

Rammer:

The anti-siez will only last a little while. My '99 was pulling to the left for the life of the truck. First break pad change, used a mil-spec moly-based anti-siez on the caliper slides and started to pull again w/in 300 miles. Anti-siez isn't rated for the high temp. It was definately in the front (hard steering wheel pull).

Second break job: Rebuilt calipers, new pads (left side old pads slightly worn more than right), new fluid. Found the anti-siez I had put on the slides was almost completely dry. It was very sticky and wouldn't let the caliper slide on the spindle very well. This time I spent about one and a half hours polishing the slides on the spindles and calipers. Started with #180 emery cloth, up to #600, then used 1500 and 2000 wet-or-dry. Also used a hard wood sanding block paying attention to even pressure and keeping the block strait. I left the machine marks to hold lube but had a mirror finish. Used high-temp wheel bearing grease (this was before I found the 2400 degree grease from EGR) and hasn't pulled since. Here's a link to EGR for the lube. Glen Maurer at EGR will help you out. He was good to me. Hope this helps. You can email or PM me if you want more info. Tony

http://www.egrbrakes.com/index-main.htm

 

[WBusa]

Anyway, next I intend to install some Bilsteins, since the current shocks look like they probably came with the truck back in '94, and one of the rears is visibly leaking. I tend to believe that a suspension problem can magnify an otherwise insignificant brake problem.

Looks like I called it right. Had the new Bilsteins put on today (wow, what a difference! Oo. ) and was informed that one of my old shocks was completely non-functional. Now the truck brakes straight as an arrow. So here's something else to add to the lore regarding how to address brake pull: once you have the brakes themselves OK, check your shocks... it appears a bad shock can cause a pull.

 

[98rammer]

yeah, dartman, i'm going to put some high temp bearing grease on it... it's starting to pull a tad again. the pins on the calipers were dry, so it was those that were sticking (not the piston being rusted and gone).



yeah, i also put Edelbrock IAS's on (cause they made a 200% improvement on dad's old chevy crew cab). i'm not impressed, and will go with bilsteins next next time. and at just over 100,000 miles, the stock shocks were still in great shape.



Tom