Yes, I ran a search and looked at Guzzles page for the caliper pins. Great page, BTW.

The rears were actually howling on mine, so I replaced all brake pads with NAPA Extreme Duty pads. I lubed everything up, but didn't touch the caliper pins. One of the front passenger caliper pins fell out and I just put it back in because it appeared lubed.

The truck now pulls to the right and when more sudden braking occurs, the harder it pulls. I've noticed it seems to pull more so on uneven or bumpy roads.

Would caliper pins be most suspect for the aforementioned issues? Do you really need to remove the entire caliper to replace the pins, or is that for less on your back or hunkered down time?

 

Did you get anything on the pads when lubing everything up? When the pin fell out did it get covered in dirt? Did you get rotors machined? Some times a pull will go away if the brakes get heated up some, sometimes the pull gets worse.

One good test is to pick up the front end with tires off the ground, apply brakes hard a couple of times with engine running in park or nuetral (make sure park brake is set). Then get out and try to turn wheels and see if they spin the same with same amount of effort. If they dont, the stiff side is hanging up.

I would suspect the right front because the pin fell out and may have got a lot of junk on it.

 

I did the brake job a few weeks ago. The pads were clean. You could literally eat off of the garage floor the pin fell on, so I gave it a very quick look and tossed it back in the caliper. The rotors looked really good w/o any signs of wear or warping. I didn't think anything of the pin that fell out, but now after reading lots of threads and the "upgrade" that Ford has, it's suspect.

One thing I didn't do after the brake job was bleed the brakes. I usually do that after every brake job. I'm going to bleed the brakes today or tomorrow and see if that helps. If not, I'm suppose I'll be doing the caliper pins.

What type of brake fluid goes in these rigs? I have a receipt from Penzoil (previous owner's local service station) showing brake system flush, but no record of type of fluid they used. Should I just flush the system while I'm bleeding them to ensure the same new fluid all around?

 

If it is pulling to the right that may mean the left front brake is not applying enough brake force. Bleed both front calipers and see if anything changes.

Edit: Jason, you beat me to the bleeding.

 

Read the master cyl cap. It has the spec. One othe thing you could do is get a turkey baister and suck all of the old fluid out of the res. then put fresh fluid in it. Then gravity bleed the brakes till it runs clean. It will replace most of the fluid except what is in the ABS system.

Just make sure to keep the master cyl res full. If it runs out you will have to get the air out.

 

Has it pulled since the brake job, or did it just start recently?

Could be that the brake line to the right is twisted around and kinked.

 

It seemed significant yesterday during work, so I'd say more recently. It caught me off guard at first. Then going to dinner last night, it didn't seem to pull, but we were on smoother, flatter roads.

 

One other thing that could make the truck pull when braking is the hub bearings. Pick up the front end and see if there is excessive movement in tire and wheel assembly.

When you did the brakes, did you make sure everything for the brakes were tight? Could be something loosening up and getting in a bind.

You may want to get it back in the shop and check everything out once again.

 

The brakes were put together properly and everything was tight. I didn't use a torque wrench during the brake job and went with feel.

During the brake job, the front end was done with one wheel up at a time. I don't recall any movement in the wheel assembly, but will double check that.

 

I just jacked the front end up and pulled and pushed at 3 and 9 o'clock and there was movement, but it was in the steering. I pushed and pulled at 12 and 6 o'clock and there was zero movement. I could hear the steering moving when pushing and pulling at 3 and 9 o'clock and see it move. There was no brake pull on my way to pick up my torque wrench at my folks' house.

 

When you pushed the piston in the calipers back to make the new pads fit, did you open the bleeder, or just push back into the master cyl? When I first started turning a wrench for a living I did a brake job on a vehicle with ABS and I just pushed the fluid back into the master. I had some of the problems you are encountering because I pushed a little bid of junk into a valve for ABS. It was pulling hard to one side. I ended up having to use one of those vacuum brake flushing tools to dislodge it. After I was done the brakes worked fine.

From then on I would open the bleeder when I pushed a caliper back, and havent had a problem since. Now I work on equipment and dont have to worry about ABS anymore.

 

I opened the bleeder to compress the pistons. I'm familiar with ABS. Before I changed the brake pads, I didn't know it had ABS. The brakes still lock up on slick/icy pavement. Would just doing the pump it, hold it down method clean out the ABS valve?

 

If I remember correctly, when you open a bleeder on the brakes and apply pedal pressure, it shuttles valves around in unit to keep the master cyl from running out of fluid in case of a leak. Best way to bleed any ABS system is to gravity bleed if you dont have a scanner capable of working on ABS of your truck.

 

Interesting. I changed my fiancee's Dodge Cummins with ABS brake pads and bled the brakes a significant amount doing the pump it, hold it down bleeding method. I believe I kept adding brake fluid to the reservoir.

I'll have to look for the best method for ABS bleeding.

 

Iteresting reading here, when i changed my brakes i didn't open the bleeder, didn't know their was a difference with these ABS systems. Subscribing....