Hi, all, this is my first post, I think:

I have a 2006 F250, and I don't drive it much. I've had several problems with the pads locking and I've hammered them out. Truck has 78,000 miles on it right now. Brake pads are probably original.

I recently removed all the stainless spring sliders and so now I have lots of room for the pads to move around. There's no way they can stick. It stops just fine, and it seems to cure this one problem. Because of the problems I've had, I always notice how much rolling resistance there is at every stop sign and traffic light.

I searched this forum thinking surely this has been discussed before as a permanent solution, but I don't see any evidence of it.

What do you all think?

 

I had a lot of rust and gunk build up on my brackets that caused the same issue of fitment but I took a wire wheel, to the brackets and that fixed the issue and put new hardware in. I'd go that route if I were you.

 

Wire wheel the caliper bracket and install new hardware. Running without hardware is not a good idea.

 

What State you live in?

If it Michigan you can't do anything to keep humidity out. I can tell you once it sat for at least 5 months your rotors will be real RUSTY.

 

I think this is a REALLY bad idea and that you need to get your hardware back on ASAP. Your pads will wear at an angle as one side of the pads will be binding to the caliper mount, and the binding will cause reduced braking power because your braking pressure will be wasted pressing metal against metal instead of your pads against your rotors.

Properly greased slides are required for proper brake operation. This needs to be fixed before you hurt someone.