over heating of front brakes /pulling to right or left / on long trips towing or not

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I HAVE A 1999 3/4TON 4x4. MY BRAKES HAVE BEEN OVER HEATING ON LONG TRIPS TOWING AND WHEN NOT TOWING A 24' TRAILER. IT HAPPENS ON FLAT GROUND AS WELL AS GRADES. THE DEALER HAS REPLACED THE CALIPERS AND BRAKES. I'M STILL HAVING THE PROBLEM, BUT NOW THE BRAKES ARE PULLING TO THE LEFT OR RIGHT ALONG WITH THE OVER HEATING. THEY SEEM TO BE ALRIGHT AFTER COOLING DOWN SO I CAN'T DUPLICATE THE PROBLEM FOR THE DEALER. HELP

 

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Dagwood-
Tell us more! Is it the front brakes or rear brakes or all the brakes overheating? Do you have any free travel in the brake pedal at all? Give us as much info as you can. ( Preferably not in CAPS, we think your yelling at us ).


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98 Properly Valved 4x4 SWB QC ISB A/T Metallic Red w/ tan cloth interior, DC nerf bars, DC two piece mud-flaps, 275 h. p. injectors, Monroe Gas Magnums, Armor Tuff spray in bed liner, Goodyear Wrangler ATS 285/75r/16, BD Heavy Duty Valve body. Walker 21468 thru flow muffler,
Cobra 29 NWST CB. American Racing Wheels.

 

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my 98 2500 does the same thing in the front left

 

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so does my 98. 5 and my rather compitent dealer has tried and can't find a cause.

 

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I had that problem on a Ford a few years agon and the Dealers (more than one) could not come up with an effective cure. I had a shop manual and started reading the sections on Brakes. Found that between the brake booster and the master cylinder there was a rod the length of which could be adjusted (the range of adj. was minute!) and backing that off about a quarter turn solved the dragging brake problem. . It had someway become out of adjustment and was applying the brakes a slight amount all the time even though it seemed there was pedal play. It may be all together different on the Dodge, but the basic system may be similiar.

Vaughn

 

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My '99 had a similar pulling to right problem but no overheating tho. Took it to the dlr and he put it on a skid pad ( best name I can think of for it) and they would run the truck up on it and really hit the brakes hard. The they would read the output on the computer. They mad some adjustments and seemed to fix it. Although I did have to have the drums turned at ONLY 20k miles. Very early I thought... . Larv

 

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Mine had an intermittent pull to left that would come and go. Had truck to dealer for some minor warranty work and mentioned the brake pull. They check it out, replaced a bunch of parts, cleaned up all the rough edges on calipers and associated parts. Have had no brake pull problems since. I believe someone else on the BB cleaned up the rough edges on their truck and cured the problem. Good luck! #ad

 

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I filed the slide area on the caliper mounts and polished the mounting pins with crocus cloth. Then lubed the pins and slide area. That was 96K miles ago. Always stops straight. I will probably have to change the pads by the time there is 100K miles on them. My drums and rotors haven't been turned and do NOT need turning. I usually give the caliper slide area a little squirt of LPS#3 at oil change time. Seems to keep everything happy. Haven't hit a deer yet!

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Joe George
Eureka, CA

'95 2500 CC auto 4X4,3. 54,Combo EGT/boost guage,custom switch panel,PacBrake,TST #5,BD valve body,Automatic motorhome steps on both sides,Foldacover hard bed cover,Cummins chrome kit,Black steel grill guard,Front hitch receiver

 

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DAGWOOD:I had a problem with my front brakes awhile back and what I did was remove the wheel then I took a tire iron and worked the brake cylinder in the caliper first working it back into the cavity then accuating the brake pedel pushing it back out,then repeating the prosses. I found that some times the cylinder in the caliper would not retract the little bit of distance it needs to,to prevent brake grab,it seems to work for me. When my truck was new I had brake grab problems and my first set wore out in 14,000 miles because of the cylinder. It kept constant pressure against the pads causeing them to ware out prematurely. Every time you acctuate the brake pedel it would put more pressure on the cylinder keeping pressure on the pads against the rotor.

 

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Joe has the right idea-from my 1992 to my 1999 they all had that problem-it was so bad in my 96 dualie that the front pads were shot at 6300 miles. The dealer replaced rotors andpads-the new ones lasted 5900-this time they replaced all front brake parts. This lasted 12000 miles before pads were shot. Heres how I fixed problem in all my dodge's-took off calipers and polished slides where calipers mount on fixed mounts on front hubs-used wire wheel and then emery cloth-I have used both synthetic lube and anti-sieze and they both work well. Apply lube to both pins and slide area. My pad lifetimes increased to 40,000 miles on the average with no pulling. #ad


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1996-350 tst #5 plate, K&N air filter,Primeloc fuel filter kit,4" exhaust,Purodyne bypass oil fiter system, bigger injectors,b&m trans pan,Amsoil all around,temp gauges out the wazzo,much trans work,double tow 33' 5th wheel and 12' trailer w/motorcycle(Honda Valkyarie Interstate)Also have 1999-250-stock.
Installing Transfer-Flow 98 gal. bed tank, governor spring kit(BD), and Bill Kodalay's TC on 96 dualie.

 

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There are so many factors with brake pull issues. I did all of the above and went to perf friction pads. The dlr could not cure it. Urethyne bushings and tubular upper and lower control arms really helped my brake pull. That shim the dlr installs helped a little also. GFL

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1999,WHITE,2500,AUTO,QC,S/B,ANTI-SPIN,CAMPER,TOW,SLT,6CD,CB,B&M TRANS TEMP GAUGE,REFLASHED,3. 5,241HD,CUST PKG 2CG, ARE TONEAU, ARMA-TUFF BEDLINER rear slider,8way pwr seat,cloth +, air-lift