Right front brake caliper always dragging-- ive changed everything!

The_Josh_Bear

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So I've replaced the soft line and the caliper trying to get this thing to stop squeezing too ******* the front right brake. But even with the new caliper it acts EXACTLY the same, so it was independent of caliper issues or soft line collapsing.
I can't think of anything that would cause this to one side and not the other.

It's not crazy tight or anything but it pulls to the right all day and the hub will be a little warmer than the left after a drive.
I can take freeway exits by just letting go of the wheel. *lame*

I've tried greasing the caliper pins, not greasing them, getting new ones and cleaning the caliper paint off the pin tracks(great idea @chillichillman88 it actually did help).

To give an idea how tight it is-- when you're mounting a wheel and you need to rotate the wheel to line up with the lug studs, with the weight of the wheel on the hub it will not turn the brake when rotating the wheel. But on the passenger side the brake turns with the wheel so you have to lift the wheel to line up the studs.

Thanks for the help,
Joshua
 
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The_Josh_Bear

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There isn't one between front calipers, just a tee. So they *should* squeeze and release at the same rate.
 

Nero

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It may just be bad luck with a caliper, I went through 3 of them in the course of 6 months once, for the exact same issue.
 

Black dawg

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If it is only a little warmer than the other side, it is not what is causing that pull.

THese calipers very rarely let the rotor turn as freely as the one side is on your truck....
 

u2slow

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The grooves for the pins are prone to wear. It causes the caliper to c o c k sideways slightly and bind.

Most of the remans are worn by now. Try again, or buy new. Also have to consider the bracket side of the equation. I have seen them built up with braze/weld and ground straight.
 

franklin2

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Possibly the other side is locked up and not working? As was already mentioned, they do drag a little normally. The only thing that pulls the piston away from the rotor is the roll of the piston seal in the caliper
 

The_Josh_Bear

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It may just be bad luck with a caliper, I went through 3 of them in the course of 6 months once, for the exact same issue.
That's nuts. Lame stuff!
If it is only a little warmer than the other side, it is not what is causing that pull.

THese calipers very rarely let the rotor turn as freely as the one side is on your truck....
So what you're saying is that it's really my loose caliper that's the problem... :D But you may be on to something. I remember that side has really smooth/loose ball joints on that side after I replaced them. I put a video up about it on FTE years ago but nobody seemed to think that the hub being so loose was odd. But the ball joints on the other side, done at the same time, have WAY more stiffness/preload. So my right side has super smooth ball joints and a sticking caliper while the left side has stiff ball joints and a loose caliper. Maybe the combo is causing the pull.
The grooves for the pins are prone to wear. It causes the caliper to c o c k sideways slightly and bind.

Most of the remans are worn by now. Try again, or buy new. Also have to consider the bracket side of the equation. I have seen them built up with braze/weld and ground straight.
Well that's yet another factor I've never even heard of... but that's why we come here! Is there a way to measure this or observe it? I've never seen them obviously crooked but seems like it might be hard to notice.
Possibly the other side is locked up and not working? As was already mentioned, they do drag a little normally. The only thing that pulls the piston away from the rotor is the roll of the piston seal in the caliper
Yep both sides do have drag. It's that the right side has way more than seems normal.
When I stomp on the brakes they both do a great job, I'm not fighting the steering at all.
 

snicklas

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OK… if I am reading the earlier posts correctly, the side you are questioning will not free spin, correct? The brake should not be dragging to the point that you can not turn the hub. Every one of these truck I have been around, 2 or 4 wheel drive, you should be able to spin the hub by hand…. It may not spin with zero drag, but you should be able to grab he hub and move it to line up the lugs, if you can not do that , without using a great deal of force, or a tool, your problem lies in that side.

If you pull the caliper off completely, how does the hub spin. Could it be a bearing issue?
 

ROCK HARVEY

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Have you checked the length of the brake booster pushrod? You can screw the end of it in/out to adjust the length, and if it’s too long it’s putting slight pressure on the brakes all the time. The pushrod should stick out almost exactly 1 inch if I remember correctly.
 

Old Goat

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Here is a YT Video showing how to adjust the rod from the Booster and Master Cylinder.
And the tool to use to get it exact.

xc_hide_links_from_guests_guests_error_hide_media


Goat
 

franklin2

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When the pushrod adjustment is wrong, BOTH front brakes will drag, not just one. As the fluid warms and expands, it must expand back into the master cylinder through the compensation ports. If the pushrod is too long, the compensation ports are blocked and after driving a short distance BOTH front brakes will apply.
 

The_Josh_Bear

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I haven't been able to get after it lately as my whole family has had strep throat and/or the flu! They've tested positive for both. Yay.

I agree that both fronts should drag if the pushrod was out of spec. But I'm sure it's worth checking out...
 

The_Josh_Bear

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OK… if I am reading the earlier posts correctly, the side you are questioning will not free spin, correct? The brake should not be dragging to the point that you can not turn the hub. Every one of these truck I have been around, 2 or 4 wheel drive, you should be able to spin the hub by hand…. It may not spin with zero drag, but you should be able to grab he hub and move it to line up the lugs, if you can not do that , without using a great deal of force, or a tool, your problem lies in that side.

If you pull the caliper off completely, how does the hub spin. Could it be a bearing issue?
I recently put on some cetramatic balancers and without touching the brakes at all I could turn the driver's hub body by hand, and cannot turn the passenger's. I have to grab a wheel lug to turn the passenger's hub for leverage.
I haven't had the caliper off in a while but the last few times I did, the bearings were fine.
 

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