On my wife's 1980 F100 she found the brakes dragging and the front end jumping. Investigation leads us to believe the brake caliper piston is not retracting, cuz it got too hot? We can use a C-clamp to force the piston to retract but then if the brakes are used the brake starts dragging again - won't retract. We removed the caliper and greased the slides but that doesn't seem to help. We are comparing it to the other side which seems to work like we think it ought to.
Is this normal/common ? What caliper should we get from Rockauto ? Cardone? We plan to replace the flexible lines also.
Please, need your help.

 

Make sure to replace in pairs so buy both sides. Yes calipers do stick and its from brake fluid being neglected which leads to oxidation in the bore.

 

Collapsed rubber lines are often the cause of this problem.

 

Before working on this problem we released the bleeder hoping that would release the piston but didn't. That's when we noticed the sliders were not greased, so we r&r the calipers to grease the sliders. But still not. So I guess we replace the calipers and the hoses. But what calipers do we get ? Brand ?

 

I’m more inclined to think this is the problem.

 

The replacement auto parts business is highly competitive with very small margins at the manufacturer level. Most brands are just the name on the box, with the actual parts all coming from the same overseas factory. Heck, even Motorcraft is slapping their name on select overseas parts these days. Brands come and go and don't really mean much.

What is indicative of the quality of the part is the price (remember, very small margins at the manufacturer level, so you really do get what you pay for). Look at the different price points on calipers at rockauto and you'll notice the higher price stuff usually has better materials and tolerances than the cheap stuff. I find with brakes, going cheap usually results in a pulsating pedal, fade issues, and annoying noises. That said, anything will be better than your stuck caliper. How much you should spend depends on what your plans (long term or not) for the truck are and whether you're willing to put up with the annoyances and potentially short life of cheap parts vs saving money.

 

Last Summer, June 2019 on my 1995 F-150, 5.0l SWB Regular cab 2 WD my front driver's side caliper wasn't retracting. Back story, I use the 1995 maybe six times a year on trips trout fishing and visiting the Aunt / Uncle around the holidays, trips are usually ranged between 640 to 850 miles each round trip, I don't drive it daily at all. And I change the brake fluid every two years on all my vehicles, cheap insurance, like changing motor oil. Anyway, the early June 2019 trout fishing trip was on the Western side of Easter Sierras mountains, after we fished, we were going to Reno, NV to visit the national Auto museum, and had to cross the mountains. We took the Sonora pass. The Sonora Pass has some grades at 27% or 28%, seems like you could of stand on the dashboard of the truck. Even though I kept the E4OD in second gear descending, I had to use my brakes allot more the usual driving and the heat generated with the front calipers prevented the driver's side from fully retracting. We pulled off the road, it close to lunch time, opened the hood to help the air circulate. After about an hour, I tried to drive, still had very little brake pedal, but there was not friction preventing the truck from rolling freely. I drove for the next ensuing hour conservatively, occasionally tapping my brake pedal until I could feel full pedal travel. I had no problems thereafter for the remainder of the trip. Once home, (next day) I removed the front wheels and inspected the braking components. Ended up getting a set of rebuilt Motorcraft calipers and re-packing both wheel bearings. Attribute my driver's side brake caliper not retracting from not using the 95 often enough.
Since changing the calipers in June 2019, we've taken the truck on three long trips, next month will be the forth and no problems with the calipers so far.

 

Probably a dirty ridge built up in caliper cylinder, I say that cause opening bleeder with no result it's down stream of the hose but if the rubber lines have never changed do that to can't hurt