Hello everyone. I have some brake questions. I have a 1973 F250 that has disc brakes on the front and so far they have been a nightmare to replace. I have completely rebuilt the front brakes from the rotors to the calipers and am still having trouble.
I have put new rotors,dual piston calipers, and pads on the truck but I am having problems with everything fitting up. When you put the pads on the rotor, they fit fine but when you bolt the caliper to the bracket it just locks the pads agianst the rotor.
The only way I can relieve the pad pressure is to put washers between the caliper and mounting bracket. I do not think this is correct but everything was put back the way it was removed. Are the rotors or pads too thick or is it a combination of both? I was going to have the rotors turned but it looks like the amount to be taken off would be too excessive. Please bear in mind, all components are brand new. Can anyone shed any light my way as to what may be the problem? I have spent a lot of money to do this entire brake system and it is getting to be nerve racking.
BTW, the right side caliper locked up today so before I ruin another set of pads and caliper, I need to know what I am up agianst. Sorry for the long post and thanks for any replies and help

 

Not sure I understand. Do you mean the pads are too close together and don't want to fit over the rotors?If so you should be able to spread them apart. More info please.

 

The pads seem to fit fine. I put the whole bracket and caliper assembly together and tried to fit it back to the rotor and it would not go, so I took the caliper off the bracket and put the bracket back on the rotor and it fit fine. But, when you attach the caliper back to the bracket, it completely locks the rotor down so the only way to free up the rotor was to put washers between the bracket and caliper.

 

check and see if your new calipers have the original steel pistons or have been replaced with the phenolic plastic pistons. If I remember right the plastic pistons are longer and don't allow enough room

Tom

 

Tom,
My calipers have aluminium pistons. Today we exchanged one caliper that locked up and when installed it, we had to use 2 washers as spacers between the caliper and mounting and we also used longer bolts and lockwashers.
We drove the truck about 12 miles and it worked fine but we would still like to know why the washers were necessary to space the caliper for it to work right. BTW, we had to do this to both calipers because without washers as spacers, the pads would lockdown agianst the rotor.

 

That is odd. I will look and my 73 250 tommorow and see if I can figure out whats up
Tom

 

Thank you so much Tom. We would greatly appreciate any help. We are almost bald from scratching our heads. We are not agianst you even taking a few photos LOL!

 

Okay I took a look at my truck today and think we might have a place to start with your caliper problem. First off there are two bolts that secure the pads to the caliper and two bolts that attach the caliper to the steering knuckle. All four of these bolts look to be the same ie guide pins with threads at one end only. Does this describe what you have?
I did take some pictures but my fte screen says that I may not post attachments.
Tom

 

Yes Tom that is exactly the setup that I have. Thank you for taking the time to help me. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

I'm still not understanding how different bolts and washers would fit. When you are talking about the caliper are you talking about the complete unit with the inside (piston) and outside (outboard pad ) or just the single side that has the pistons in it.

Tom

 

Did you use the longer bolts and washers between the two caliper halves
Tom