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Pulling to the Left while braking?

S

Spearfisher XJ

NAXJA Forum User
Location
SoCal/Maritime Academy
88 XJ 4.0 9" F/R 5 Speed Explorer Disc brakes.

Just started doing it while driving from San Francisco to OC this weekend...

Well basically, while applying the brakes, the Jeep will veer REALLY hard to the left, and it turns the steering wheel hard to the left as well. I can almost make a U turn in the street while coming down from 45 mph... It's bad.

Rotors and pads have less than 2000K miles on them, and I bled the fronts today.

It seems intermittent now. Sometimes it will do it, other times it will brake perfectly. The master cylinder had black dirty brake fluid in it, but Its all clean now.

What do you guys think it is?
 
Check out your brakes. Mine was doing the same and it ended up being that my piston was blown out of my drum brake in the rear. That and my drum brakes were not put together right by the PO. Take the tires off and hit everything with a couple cans of brake cleaner. Should help.
 
Stuck caliper. It was clamped on the passenger side. I was subtly correcting without realizing it. Then when I hit the brakes. The driver side clamps and equalizes the braking force, and now I am suddenly overcorrecting. The net effect was for it to pull to the good side when braking. Eventually it got so bad my engine started heating up, as did the tranny. Finally it started pulling really hard to the pass side. Fortunately I had all right turns to get home.
 
Check the caliper slides. I am not sure what the exploder brakes look like but on a cherokee, the calipers wear grooves in the caliper guides causing them to stick and not apply evenly.
 
Sometimes there is a clicking noise coming from the brakes too... Goes away when I apply the brakes even the smallest amount. The guys at the brake shop said the ears probably aren't bent over all the way?
 
I would check out and plan on replacing calipers/pads and maybe rotors if they are worn past tolerances- basically can you feel any grooves. Look for any loose bolts, tie rod ends, bolts, but my money is on the fact that you probably have a caliper bolt or 2 loose or one is missing, which is pretty serious if that is the case.

also, have you actually pulled the tires off and checked out the calipers yet? and put a wrench on everything and checked every bolt up front for torque, every bushing for wear, every TRE etc.
 
I don't know if I could do a U-turn but my 89 was pretty wild pulling to the left also. A little frightening on the freeway. At this point I only know what it isn't: Brand new rotors and pads made no difference.

I have an NP242 so the toe-in is 0 deg. Since I never use any setting except 2WD and 4-Lo I figure I can pretend it's an NP231 and set the toe-in 1/8". I've done that but haven't taken it out yet.
 
HappySlappy said:
I don't know if I could do a U-turn but my 89 was pretty wild pulling to the left also. A little frightening on the freeway. At this point I only know what it isn't: Brand new rotors and pads made no difference.

I have an NP242 so the toe-in is 0 deg. Since I never use any setting except 2WD and 4-Lo I figure I can pretend it's an NP231 and set the toe-in 1/8". I've done that but haven't taken it out yet.
Click to expand...


its really the caliper, not the rotors and pads. I say calipers, and then might as well do rotors and pads while its all off .
 
blondejoncherokee said:
I would check out and plan on replacing calipers/pads and maybe rotors if they are worn past tolerances- basically can you feel any grooves. Look for any loose bolts, tie rod ends, bolts, but my money is on the fact that you probably have a caliper bolt or 2 loose or one is missing, which is pretty serious if that is the case.

also, have you actually pulled the tires off and checked out the calipers yet? and put a wrench on everything and checked every bolt up front for torque, every bushing for wear, every TRE etc.
Click to expand...

Rotors and pads done less than 3K ago. Recently replaced LCA JJ's less than 2K. Has new Rock Krawler track bar less than 5K. Everything is greased. TRE's are warn a little, probably gonna need new ones sometime in the near future. Bled the front calipers, and drained the Master Cylinder. I'll double check everything on Saturday

jeeperjohn said:
If you can make it out to Temecula I would be happy to take a look at it for you.
Click to expand...

If I can't get it to be fixed I'll swing out there. Thanks
 
HappySlappy said:
I don't know if I could do a U-turn but my 89 was pretty wild pulling to the left also. A little frightening on the freeway. At this point I only know what it isn't: Brand new rotors and pads made no difference.

I have an NP242 so the toe-in is 0 deg. Since I never use any setting except 2WD and 4-Lo I figure I can pretend it's an NP231 and set the toe-in 1/8". I've done that but haven't taken it out yet.
Click to expand...

Can you elaborate on the difference in toe-in between the 242 and 231? Had no idea there was a difference.

On the alignment machine (Hunter), same values are recommended for any type of 1998 XJ AW4/4.0L, without regard for the TC type... really don't know why there should be a difference...
 
yaromb said:
Can you elaborate on the difference in toe-in between the 242 and 231? Had no idea there was a difference.

On the alignment machine (Hunter), same values are recommended for any type of 1998 XJ AW4/4.0L, without regard for the TC type... really don't know why there should be a difference...
Click to expand...
Sure but my understanding is only casual. If someone finds my info incorrect please point that out.

NP231 = Slight toe in. Commonly expressed as 1/8" toe in.
NP242 = 0 deg

I assume the difference is because the NP242 is full time 4WD.
 
ill post again, calipers. replace calipers. third time. If rotors and pads are new thats fantastic. replace the caliper on the side it is pulling to.
 
rock auto has em for cheap. your an 88 right ? I think I grabbed some centric premiums from rockauto for around 20$ each. actually, I think I still might have my old ones lying around after teh WJ swap, maybe if you end up in sacto you can grab em for free, but Id have to look around.

also, rockauto always has a 5% discount code online somewhere.

centric premiums for 15+15 core each:

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carcode,1179839,parttype,1704
 
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