ovrcome

I have a 89 F150 XLT Lariat 4x4. Last month while driving the truck started pulling to the left and felt like the Caliper wouldnt release. Sat for a couple of days. Fluid is fine. No leaks. I drove it again for 30 miles no problem. Then all the sudden it happened again. Really confused. If the caliper was stuck I wouldnt expect it to work. Any other Ideas?

BLDTruth

Jack it up and see if you can spin the front wheels by hand. Maybe crack the bleeder screws and see what the fluid in the caliper looks like.

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

Couple hundred for new brake parts. Just because the truck is old doesn't mean it shouldn't have brand new brakes all the way around. They're just as important for you as the guy driving the $60,000 truck. But yours are cheaper to replace.

Crownman

There's one thing you could try if you want before replacing the caliper. Remove the caliper but leave the fluid line connected. When removing the caliper try not to push the piston in unless you absolutely have to. And then only push it in far enough to get the caliper off.

Clamp off the fluid line and completely remove the bleeder screw. Now push the piston all the way in to completely evacuate all the fluid from inside the caliper. Catch the fluid in a bowl and see if any big pieces of dirt come out.

If you don't see anything noticeable put the bleeder screw back in and unclamp the fluid line. Then put a piece of 2x4 inside the caliper and have someone step on the brakes. This will fill the caliper back up and the 2x4 will keep the piston from coming completely out. Then repeat the process above and see if you get anything.

To explain why I suggest this.
I had a truck come in the shop with the same issue. And intermittent sticking caliper. What I ended up finding out was that there was a piece of dirt or junk inside the caliper. Sometimes when you would let up on the brake the piston would retract like normal and the piece of junk would get lodged in the fluid line connection causing the piston to not retract completely. Then you would press on the brake, it would push out the junk from the line and sometimes not lodge itself back in there so then the caliper wouldn't stick.

ovrcome

Thanks everyone!!! Going to dig into it this week hopefully. I am prepared to go new everything if needed. Depending on how bad the rotors look. If they look pretty worn then ill just get new Rotors/Calipers/Pads/Brake Lines/Bearings. As soon as I find out I will post what I found!

wde3477

Another suggestion is to make sure the slides that the caliper rides on are in good shape - smooth and with a light coat of high-temp grease, so that the caliper won't get mechanically bound.