BLDTruth

Truck is pulling to the right pretty significantly when I brake. It's not jerking the wheel out of my hands or anything but it is enough that I need to hold on if I stomp on it hard enough. Most of what I have read is that it is probably a dodgy caliper or a collapsed brake line.

Here is what I have done recently:

Rear brakes - new drums, cylinders, springs and shoes. Basically the only thing that didn't get replaced in the rear was the rear brake hose. Today I pulled off the drums to make sure they were adjusted properly.

Front brakes - new pads, turned rotors, re-greased caliper boot slides and pad slides.

Bled the entire system including the RABS thingy under the driver side seat.

When I pulled the front brake pads for replacement, the passenger inner pad was worn down much farther than the outer pad. The guy at the shop also said that the passenger rotor was much more warped than the driver's side when he turned them. When I put the new pads in, I had no problem compressing either caliper piston with a c-clamp, and today when I pulled the front wheels off again, both sides seemed to spin with equal resistance. I went ahead and swapped the front tires around to see if the pull followed the tire but it still pulls to the right when braking, and drives straight as an arrow otherwise.

All of this evidence leads me to believe that perhaps I have a bad left brake hose or a soon to be really bad right caliper. Let me know what you guys think.

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like the right brake is grabbing much better than the left.

BLDTruth

Yes its just a matter if the right is grabbing "too well" or if the left is grabbing "not enough."

The fact that I can get the calipers off relatively easy and can turn both the rotors with the same resistance tells me the calipers are releasing. So it leads me to the left brake hose not functioning properly under braking conditions, and I don't really know any way to test that other than to just replace it. But its cheap enough and looks easy enough so I have a Saturday morning project.

Chris_1

iTrader: (1)

I'd do both. Collapsed hoses tend to mostly not release. The pressure from the pedal will usually push fluid through, but there's no pressure at release - it kind of has to make it back on it's own. Harder for it to release through a bad hose, if that makes sense.

BLDTruth

False alarm. While browsing brake hoses online I looked back at my notes for when I bled the brakes and realized that I never bled the front left caliper because I couldn't get it loose with a traditional 3/8" wrench. Even made a note I needed to get a line wrench. Went and got a line wrench, busted her loose, and had to remove the bleeder screw before I got an avalanche of rusty brake fluid. Replaced with new bleeder, pumped clean fluid through. Took her for a test drive. Straight as an arrow while braking.

This is why I take notes. And also why I usually review them before I go starting a new thread :p. But at least the solution was simple. And cheap.