Godzilla

ive searched and from that i believe my left caliper is sticking. Does this sound right? When i drive i pull to the right and when i brake i pull to the left. This doesnt always happen. Thanks for the help.

leebee

pulling either l or r when braking usually indicates a seized piston in the caliper. put the front end up on jacks, take off the wheels, take the pads out and check the pistons. youll know right away if one is seized, you wont be able to press it back into the caliper. if one is bad, you might consider replacing both as the other wont be far behind.

where do i send the .02$?

lee

89macrunner

yea if your being pulled while driving your thats your wheel alignment usualy,

pulling whne braking means you need calipers ASAP...might as well replace both calipers, rotors, pads.....why not its only a few hundred dollars?


Im selling my truck and getting a horse...

LittleRedToyota

sounds like your passenger side caliper is frozen (in the sort of "halfway on" position)...

the pistons are not retracting when the brakes aren't on, which causes the pads on that side to drag...thus, pulling you to the right when you are driving down the road.

then, when you apply the brakes, the pistons do not extend to exert pressure on the bads...thus, you get less braking power on the passenger side wheel--causing your truck to pull the the left.

you can rebuild your calipers yourself without too much trouble...if you don't want to go to the trouble of rebuilding them, you can also trade in your old ones as cores on a set of rebuilt ones...takes maybe 30 to 45 minutes per wheel to replace them.

MLesch

LittleRedToyota: do you know of any writeups on rebuilding the calipers?

jimbo74

in todays day and age its noramlly advised to jsut get the reman calipers....

LittleRedToyota

hmmm...can't find a specific write-up, but a guy (MickDaddy) on 4x4wire.com posted these instructions awhile back...they are good:

--------------------------------
Rebuilding them is pretty simple.

1)Remove caliper from truck.
2)Drain remaining fluid from calipers.
3)remove brake pads and replace with a small piece of wood. Then force the pistons out with the spray nozzle off your air compressor. (you can also buy a piston remover). Be aware when you use compressed air the pistons will come out with a lot of force so use the wood to stop them from fully coming out.
4)Then just twist them out with your fingers.
5)Remove the piston seals and lightly hone using a piston bore hone from your local parts house.
6)Clean with brake cleaner.
7)Lube the seals with brake fluid and install
8)Lube the pistons with brake fluid and press back in
9)install calipers
10)Bleed

Also make sure you use new copper washers on the calipers.
----------------------------------------

i think you can get the re-build kit from toyota...napa also sells them....prolly other auto parts stored do also.

you can also get remanufactured OEM calipers from advance auto and just trade in your old ones as cores.

the calipers themselves are held on by two hard as heck to loosen bolts...i think they are 19mm IIRC (might be 17mm)...had to put a breaker bar on them and jump on it the first time i took them off my truck.

just take the cap off the master cylinder, remove the brake lines from the calipers and plug them with a rubber stopper or golf tee or whatever you can use to keep them from spewing brake fluid without damaging the rubber hose and then either just replace the calipers (if using already rebuilt ones) or rebuild them as described above.

make sure the master cylinder resevoir never runs dry while doing the work and then, after you have replaced the calipers, bleed the system in this order:

1. driver's side rear wheel;
2. passenger's side rear wheel;
3. passenger's side front wheel;
4. driver's side front wheel;
5. LSPV.

if i come across and actual write-up, i'll post a link.

if you have any specific questions, post them.

good luck.

sandcrawler

i had the same thing (almost). anyhow, i ended up replacing one caliper (left). short time later the right one went, and the left one was compensating for so long it went bad, too.

i would recommend just doing a full brake job: l&r calipers, pads, rotors if need be.

peace of mind...

LittleRedToyota

yes, definitely do both calipers...and at least check your rotors...sticking calipers have a tendency to trash rotors...

if the pads are OK and of the same thickness on both sides, you can prolly re-use them, but they are relatively cheap, so, like the man says, might wanna get yerself some cheap peace-o-mind.

LittleRedToyota

here are a few related write-ups...still can't find anything specifically addressing rebuilding the calipers...but, these will help a lot:

removing calipers and rotors (part of really good front-end bearing/hub maintenance write-up)

installing rotor and caliper (part of same front-end maintenance write-up)

Bleeding the brakes