Help, Its changing lanes

[77crewcab]

After doing the brakes on my burb I noticed it is pulling to the left. Not enough so that it requires a big steering correction to keep it strait but enough so that if I let go of the wheel it will start to pull left enough to change lanes. The only difference is the brake job, it seemed to drive strait before. My thinking is maybe the alignment is out of whack and the poor brakes were masking it before. Heres the run down:

RF: Replaced rotor, caliper, hose and pads, rotor had a DEEP groove from the wear indicator and was possibly dragging some
RR: drum, shoes, had to leave out the spreader bar and lever for the e-brake as they were too badly damaged, Will be replacing this weekend.
LF: pads, caliper and hose
LR: drum and shoes

What else could cause the pulling? I know the rag joint needs to be replaced but not sure if it would cause this alone. Tie rod ends maybe they appear okay but not sure how to check them. The ball joints check okay. The steering box has a good leak like most I have seen if that makes a difference. What can I do to determine the problem and fix it?

 

[romeolimagolf]

If you, or one of your buddies have one of those fancy infrared laser temperture reader thingys that you just point at something and pull the trigger and it gives you a temp reading, then what you can do is this:

take the vehice on a test drive, making sure to apply the brakes often to get get the rotors nice and hot. After the test drive, jump out and get a temperature reading of both front rotors. If the brakes are working as they should, both rotors should have about the same temp reading. (withing a few degres of each other) If one caliper is binding, or a bad hose is keeping a caliper applied, then one rotor will have a temp reading abnormally higher than the other one.

This will help you narrow things down and tell where to look. If the temp of both rotors are about the same, your problem likely isnt in the brakes. I would then look at the alignment or perhaps the wheel bearings.

 

[Blue85]

Maybe it's from the rears being adjusted differently?

Sometimes it takes a day or two to get the new pads fully seated, too. When you reassembled, did you lube the sliding parts with white grease?

I think the odds of brake problems "masking" alignment problems are slim. I can see it at one certain level of braking, but it shouldn't work well in general.

 

[Jason4x4]

check rear adjustment, and re-bleed everything.

 

[77crewcab]

Thanks I will take all the advice. I have one of the IR thermometers so will try that. This weekend I will be replacing the broken ebrake parts on the the RR and will bleed the system. I am really thinking it must be something in the brakes that is the cuplrit. Other than the leaking power steering pump and gearbox, and bad rag joint every thing suspension looks good. And it drove well before and after other than the pulling and typical loose steering. On a side note I may have found a GM piece to replace the ragjoint with rather than doing the XJ swap.

 

['79shortbox]

I would suspect the brakes, not the steering. I was thinking that it might have something to do with the rear adjustment as jason said. I would also bleed them again. I had a new hose that I bought for mine that had something in it and I had to power bleed to get it to blow loose. Good luck.

 

[fireplug]

On a side note I may have found a GM piece to replace the ragjoint with rather than doing the XJ swap.

Do tell....

 

[lectric80]

X2, since the XJ swap won't work with my 80's big parts I would be interested in something that would replace the worn rag joint.

 

[77crewcab]

Well I am not positive it is the right size/spline count on the steering box cause I haven't been able to remove one to check. But the lower steering column from a 99 C6500 looks to be identical to our style. The only exception is that it roughly measures 24 inches while ours measures roughly 21. But the bottome portion of the shaft before the ujoint is round tube. It could easily be cut to proper length and rewelded with a sleeve over it for added strength. I am currently trying to find one in a salvage yard to experiment with.