Front Brakes Sticking

[goathearder]

So, I was having some serious brake issues, rear wheel cylinders and MC were bad, so I replaced those and bled the MC and the brakes tonight and took it for a drive.

Frankly, the brakes are 10x better than I have ever known them to be and the pedal feel went from stepping on a sponge to stepping on a cement block.

Anyway, as I was test driving I could smell burnt brake pad/drum so I came home and when I parked it, it was smoking from both front wheels so clearly I was dragging the front pads.

Question is, what the heck could cause that? I was thinking maybe the new pressure was so much that it siezed the front caliper but that seems counter-intuitive.

I did get on the brakes hard 10 times in my test drive to test the stopping power so maybe that caused the front calipers to stick?

I should mention that its a 73, d44 front, 12bolt rear with factory disks in front and drums in the rear.

Any ideas?

 

[metalneverdies]

Pull your calipers. Inspect for even brake pad wear, check and make sure the slide pins are lubed and the seals are good. Then check to make sure the piston seal is food and piston is comming out straight. Use the brake piston compressing tool of your choice and evenly push the piston back into its bore. If after all that it is not fixed, then you probably need to rebuild your calipers.

 

[goathearder]

Doh, that is what I was thinking. I was hoping there was an easy answer. I should have just rebuilt the calipers when I was doing the rest.

 

[dhcomp]

Doh, that is what I was thinking. I was hoping there was an easy answer. I should have just rebuilt the calipers when I was doing the rest.

I'm sure they aren't hard to rebuild, but nice reman's are like $18/piece.

Not worth my time. Swap front calipers (do both!) at first signs of uneven braking.

 

[goathearder]

Hmmmmmm, it appears this issue may have worked itself out. I drove around a little bit just now and the front brakes aren't sticking at all. I wonder if doing all those panic stops to test the stopping power heated the fluid or calipers too much and caused them to stick.

In any case, it looks good now but the next time I have the front apart, I will pull the calipers off and check them out just to make sure.

 

[imiceman44]

Hmmmmmm, it appears this issue may have worked itself out. I drove around a little bit just now and the front brakes aren't sticking at all. I wonder if doing all those panic stops to test the stopping power heated the fluid or calipers too much and caused them to stick.

In any case, it looks good now but the next time I have the front apart, I will pull the calipers off and check them out just to make sure.

Your panic stops made them hot, it takes time for the brakes to cool down from repeated panic stops, I doubt you had any sticking calipers.

 

[goathearder]

Your panic stops made them hot, it takes time for the brakes to cool down from repeated panic stops, I doubt you had any sticking calipers.

Yea, that makes a lot of sense to me. I guess I really didn't think about that first. I'll certainly remember that for the next time though, hahahaha.