i have a 98 F150 ext cab, lifted 7.5", v6 on 35" tires. my front brake rotors were badly warped so i bought some new spiffy shiny cross-drilled and slotted rotors and some ceramic pads (i take my truck up to the mountains for snowboarding trips) now, i'm pretty mechanically inclined and got a friend (who knows his way around trucks) to help me install these.

now, as it came time to put the rotors on the spindles, i stepped inside the house and grabbed us some drinks, when i came back out he was tightening the nuts on the spindles. when we dropped the truck off the jacks, i immediately noticed the wheels were severely off camber. they tilted in at top... badly. i didnt think anything of it until i take the truck down the street, i hear that terrible screech of metal grinding against metal so i parked the truck and told him something was wrong, get the jacks back out. we take the wheels off and cant seem to find anything wrong untill i look inside one of the old rotors and see..... the main bearing.

great. i had all that weight on my spindles and brake calipers. "hopefully theres no damage" i think. well i yell at my buddy for a little bit for making such a newb mistake, then reinstall the rotors the right way. now i have a problem that didnt happen before, i can HEAR the brake pad in the driver's side caliper scrape and rattle against the rotor. i put a good amount of miles on and this still happens. it does Not go away when i apply the brakes

i *think* the caliper has siezed somewhere, the two parts are stuck to the bolts and the caliper itself is not sliding and clamping when i push the brake pedal. i do have adequate brake pressure and stopping power which leads me to belive the passenger caliper isnt damaged, and/or the caliper pistons in one or both still function, even if the caliper doesnt slide.

i plan on pulling the calipers off tomorrow and possibly getting them rebuilt. the only other thing i could suspect is the caliper mounting bolts got bent when the weight of the truck was on them... if anyone can offer some speculation as to anything else that might have been damaged i'd really appreciate it. thanks in advance guys - Scott

 

update: well, good news, it wasnt as bad as i thought, the caliper isnt siezed and it works just fine, the dustcap was off and was loose inside my rim :P

it would rotate up to the top of the centercap inside my rim, then fall to the bottom and make that 'clink' sound.

i did, however see a groove eaten into my rotor on the driver's side so i replaced the brake pads, the old ones were heat damaged. i hope that fixes the problem