Hi there,

I havent posted in awhile, so bare with me. I have looked at someother posts in search of this but haven't really found anything related to it pin point.

I have a 1990 F-150, 4x4 with front rotors and rear drums. My question is about my front driver rotor and why after only have it turned twice it still seems to be a little tight with outer pad installed and whether or not I have a problem with the brake line that connects to my fairly new caliper. (caliper is a year old, brake line is not ba dlooking from the outside, when disassembled from the cailper, fluid runs out but when I hook it up to the caliper, it takes a while for it to come out of the bleeder screw, a long time in short.)

Now I have disassembled this rotor several times in search of a problem, but also if you have driven a lot, and whenyou have bled all the air out of the lines shouldn't the caliper have pressure against the inside pad, in such a way as needing a c-clamp to keep it retained from completely extending out? I know I did with the passenger side, but these last 2 times I haven't had too, and the first time without ever relieving brake fluid or pressure it never extended out. What could I be missing?...

Also I have tighted down the rotor to specs, ( manual locking hubs, with the oems change dover to Mile marker lockouts) but the wheel doesn't move freely, it takes some degree of strength to spin the wheel, it did before, but instead of the 70 ft lbs of torque I did 60 and then retighted it down to 15...If anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I look forward to them. Thank You.

 

Fluid won't easily flow out of the bleed screw. That's normal.

As for your other question(s), I have no idea what you're asking.

 

Just curious if anyone has had a chance to view and/or respond to this Post, I apologize if this not acceptable.

 

Thank you for the response Andym. I just have read about using the C-Clamp, but to no use it was, the caliper didn't seem as if it had any pressure against it on the driver side front rotor, is this normal. I could swear I needed it for the Passenger side caliper

 

They should move pretty easily, but it would be tough to do it by hand in any case. There are various tools to do it, but I've found that a large set of channel locks works best.

When you replaced one caliper, did you replace the other as well?

 

Your front drivers side rotor (I think this is what you mean) may or may not be a little tight after driving it a bit. I'm assuming you've bled the brakes and then test drive it and jack it up at home and notice there is some rubbing of the pad to the disk. There's only a problem there if you're wheels are getting real hot and you smell burning brakes. Otherwise there's not problem.

Now are you saying that the piston in the caliper isn't pushing out and onto the pad? If so then that's not good, it's sticking and you need a new caliper, even if it is only a year old.

Wheels never move freeley when I've torqued them down. Just follow specs. That would be the correct thing to do. You did say that the wheel moved freely before. If so then it's possible that it wasn't torqued down correctly and ended up with wobble in it and bent/damaged your caliper. Why did you work on the brakes in the first place? Did you have that problem where your brakes shook real bad when you applied them? I had that problem once and it was cause I didn't torque the wheel down enough. That caused damage to a few things.

 

Thak You Andym and Qman for your timely responses. And to answer qman's question about the first time, your right, I didnt have the hub and rotor torqued down to specs the first time. Exactly right. I ended up have a shimmy when I heard it rolling one night while we were ot running the backroads and I did notice I wobble with caliper yesterday when I was done with the brakes. I can move it back and forth some, some wobble... So after I realized that I damaged the oil seal and everything the bearings and the races, I changed them again and noticed that the trucked pulled to the left. I just had new tired put on and everything and aligned, and still it pulls to the left. So yesterday I pulled everything back out checked everything again, the specs. IT still took so strength to turn the hob and rotor assembly on the spindle, so that was when I decided that maybe it was torqued down way to tight, so I simply torqued it to 60 lbs, then backed it off 90 degrees like the book states and then retighted it to 15 lbs, (Chilton says 15 to 20). It moved a lot better and I checked the end play of the rotor and there doesn't seem to be any.I paid a lot of attention to it. 20 or so minutes gazing and piddling with the rotor and hub, looking for end play.

But yes I have noticed that even since I first had the NEW rotor turned, USA made rotor, that the wheel and hub get warm after driving, not near as much as the left side, and yes to Answer Andym's question, I replaced both calipers, passenger side is 6 months newer than the driver side and so is the rotor for the passenger side.

 

One other thing to remember. When you put a rotor on make sure you clean up all metal surfaces real good. I take and blow them off with my air compressor and then scrub them with a wire brush and then blow air on them again. The purpose for doing this is that you don't want small pebbles or grains of sand to get between steel to steel mating surfaces. The wheel, rotor, spindle, and caliper are all aligned and the smallest grain of sand in between two metal surfaces can knock out that alignment and may cause shimmy over time.

If one side is getting warmer than the other than the caliper is sticking a little. I don't remember what these calipers look like but what I've done in the past to remedy this is to polish the sliding steel-to-steel surfaces with sand paper and apply a thin film of a lightweight grease to them.

 

Sounds like you need a left caliper. Even if it is only 6 months old, it is still a rebuilt product so you never know. Make sure you use new pins for those calipers or at least for the left side when you replace it again.

To qman:
His caliper is the old style with the metal and rubber pins that you have to hammer in.

 

I've done so many brake jobs with different caliper designs that I can't even remember the metal and rubber pins you speak of. Anyway, make sure that whatever it is the caliper slides on is clean and smooth.

 

Hey Guys!

Thanks A lot for the info and suggestions...It's driving me nuts and exhausting me, mentally. I'll get back with the suggestions and ho it all work...I'm sick, took Nyquil, feeling drowsy. Thanks again!!!!

 

Hey Guys, I had a chance to tear into the hub and rotor and I got a new caliper, with new slide pins. Well here's what I cannot make a determined motive for for I see is happening. Before I even pu the new caliper on I noticed that as I turned the hub(rotor), that there is a high point and a low point of the rotor, and I just had it turned, am I missing something? *shakes head*..Maybe I should just buy a new rotor and start from there, because I haven't had any problems from the passenger side. Even when I attatch the caliper and left pad, and apply pressure to the caliper and then it applies pressure to the pads, ec, there are still high and low points, where when you turn it, it get's really tight and then it leaves the pad sloppy in the housing f the caliper...what do you guys think..Would a new rotor help?...Thanks again!