Took caliper off. Put back on, pulls hard left

Exactly what the title says, i took the caliper off to replace a ujoint in the shaft. i put caliper back on, go to drive, pulls way hard left when i brake now and itll squeek too.

what is the story?

um which side were you working on?

the driver side, the side it now pulls to.

When you put the caliper back on how did you do it? are you sure that you didnt some how get air into the lines?
Could be also that you got the piston kinda outta wack and it could be crossed up a little. Do you notice the pull when you are not on the brakes?

Did you...

Lube the pins?
Lube the slides?
Get anything on the pads?
Get anything on the rotor?
Clean pads and rotor before reassembly?
Torque lug nuts to proper torque?

Rev

Did you grease the caliper bolts with brake grease before you put it back together? Also, did you notice the condition of the knuckle where the caliper floats? Was the outer caliper fully seated?

Maybe exercising the caliper a few times will help. You can pry the piston back into the caliper and then apply the brakes. Carefull where you pry, so nothing is damaged. If prying doesn't work you can try a small block of wood and a C clamp, to compress the cylinder. I rarley have to loosen the bleeder valve to compress the cylinder. I use a giant pair of channel lock pliers, I have, to compress the cylinder.
Thre caliper just about has to move on the rods (caliper bolts). There is a plastic or teflon insert in the caliper, where the rods (bolts) fit that can get twisted up and cause the caliper to jam and not float like it should. The rods rarley rust, I think they are stainless, but worth a look.
If the rubber seal around the caliper piston gets damaged, water (dirt or mud) can get behind the seal and in front of the O rings and cause rust and sticking.
Letting the caliper hang from the rubber brake line, can damage it and possibly seperate the layers. The inner layer can act like a valve and keep the brake fluid from flowing back to the master cylinder and the piston from releasing. A little brake fluid returns to the master cylinder when the brakes are released, which releases the tension on the pads. Wire the caliper up out of the way when working in the area and avoid kinking the line.
I always lightly sand the pads and disc, when they are removed, it seems to help avoid grabs and shudders. Grease or oil can also cause them to grab, after the grease/oil mixes with rust and pad dust and gets cooked a few times.

Rev Den said:

Did you...

Lube the pins?
Lube the slides?
Get anything on the pads?
Get anything on the rotor?
Clean pads and rotor before reassembly?
Torque lug nuts to proper torque?

Rev

Click to expand...

we did none of this (lug nuts are all set though), but there was a very short span of the caliper being unattached from vehicle, it was secured up and then reattached without interference from anything else

also theres no pull until i brake

try all of that 1st...cheap and easy. Always go cheap and easy 1st...always.

BTW - Anytime you pull the brakes it is a good idea to do all this.

Rev

Just for the heck of it, go out and look and see if the outer pad isn't on there backwords. The metal side towords the disc. People get in a rush and bad stuff happens.
The pads sometimes get grooved from the disc, the grooves don't generally cause much grief, but if the pads get installed a little off, from where it came from, the grooves can cause grabbing. Another good reason to sand the pads and disc, it helps them to wear more evenly over the years.
The disc often gets crusty where it mates to the hub. If you have some crust on the disc and some crust on the hub and re-mate them in another position, you can have more than a few thousandths (probably closer to 15-30 thousandths) of cant in the disc. Cant can cause the pads to grab, until they wear in a bit.

so i just went out, took it all apart, reseated the pads to make sure they were all alligned correctly, sprayed it all down liberally with brake cleaner, reinstalled it all, and took it for a drive. it braked perfectly fine for the first mile or so, about 10 brakes into it, it started to pull severly to the left again, same exact as it was before.

bout all i can do for now given i dont have any lube around

how old are your brake lines? there cheap enough and they can cause pulling drive with minimum brake useage for a few miles if possible than see if the problem rotor is hotter than the other one if so could be the lines or just a bad caliper

kennzz05 said:

how old are your brake lines? there cheap enough and they can cause pulling drive with minimum brake useage for a few miles if possible than see if the problem rotor is hotter than the other one if so could be the lines or just a bad caliper

Click to expand...

the lines are extended lines from RE, only about a year old at most.

oh well i tried... you might still wanna see if the problem side gets hotter than the other. had this happen to me and i thought it was the caliper but it turned out to be the lines should have bought the lines b-4 i bought the calipers live and learn but if you get a significant temp diff between the 2 sides it will tell you if that side is dragging as i type this it dawns on me to tell you to jack it up and see if it drags instead of driving it try spinning the wheel b-4 you touch the brakes than after applying then see what you got sorry to ramble but just drank a 32oz x-tra strong coffee good luck

When you release the brakes, the piston in the caliper backs off a little. There is very little pressure between the pads and the rotor. There is often actually a very fine gap you can see or stick a feeler gage into.
When there is too much pressure (or too little clearance) between the pads and rotor, the heat builds up fast and the clearances gets even smaller, the disc gets hotter etc. It will sure enough grab or lock up.
Jack the wheel off the ground, it should turn with only moderate resistance (you should be able to turn it with one hand). If the pads are hanging much at all, it will drag significantly and be rather hard to turn.
Then figure out why it's dragging. The piston isn't backing off like it should (it's sticky). The caliper is sticking on the rods (caliper bolts). The pads are hanging up and sticking on the guides. The low spots on the rotor aren't lining up with the high points on the pads, sand them with 100 grit sandpaper, across the grain or sideways. Sanding the discs and the pads, deosn't hurt a thing, just flattens the high spots some and freshens things up a little.
Some more exotic things that can cause problems are a kinked brake hard line or a damaged rubber brake line. On some of the braided steel lines the inner silicon sleeve can kink or degrade. There was a recall on many after market stainless steel braided brake lines awhile back, because the liner was getting soft and failing.
If the disc isn't sitting on there pretty straight (dirt or rust between the disc and hub) it can rub fairly hard on a contact patch, with every revolution. One reason they use a torque wrench to tightenthe lug nuts, is so the rotor doesn't get canted (or warped) from unequal pressure on the lug nuts.
If a disc gets rusty, from sitting for awhile without use, it can stick signficantly. The rust will wear off after some use. They can rust pretty quick (overnight), after being cleaned with brake cleaner.

Two stupid questions:

1) Are the pads the same on both sides, and the calipers aligned the same way?

2) Is the brake fluid OK? I've seen cases where the fluid's shot, there's crap in the lines, and one side grabs more than the other.

That aside, run through the above suggestions as well.

Heres something different:

Neither front brakes were working before the work, now the side you repaired is but the other side is still hung up and not working.

I would start looking at the side you did not have apart.

Came across this thread while searching and figured I would add my experience with a nasty pull while braking.....I replaced my calipers and the pull is gone.In my case it was pulling right so I think the driver side caliper wasn't gripping as hard as the pass side was.....hth

I recently fixed up the brakes on an 89 I bought.

Without going into details, only one of the four pads was really worn, but it was down to the metal and had destroyed the outer surface of the rotor.

I tore down the calipers, cleaned and lubed everything up. I also filed the caliper surfaces (where they contact the pads) to be smooth, flat, and at the correct angles: don't overdo it if you decide to do this. It was maybe a few .01" I took off.

Langer beat me to this one. If it's pulling left, the left brake is the one that's working. Check the right.