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holy crap batman!!!!!!!! scalding brakes!!!! EDIT: PICS added in first post

78Suburban

78Suburban

1/2 ton status
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I just took the burb about a mile and a half up the road and back. The brakes have been less than perfect, but I blamed it on the drum brakes being full of mud. I got back to the yard and the pedal was very soft and crappy. I had previously thought the front driverside brake caliper screw might be slightly stripped, but I just tightened it down a bit more.

I saw steam coming from behind my wheel.. that can't be good...

looked and some fluid was leaking around the base of the bleeder screw and turning to steam.. Touched the dust shield and it scaleded my hand. Spit on the caliper and it turned to steam like an exhaust manifold would do.

Felt of the passenger side dust shield and it was un naturally hot, but not quite as hot..

So what gives? Something majorly wrong with the brake system, or burning up the front wheel breaking(s)?? I know whatever it is, this can't be good!! :confused:

EDIT: I just found out that the driver side drive flange and knuckle will evaporate spit too... I'm guessing I need to look for a new wheel bearing, and learn how to replace it.. Also, it might not be the best thing for the ball joints on that side to get that dang hot!!

EDIT again.. pics.. it might be hard to tell from the pics, but the pad is touching the rotor. I can still turn the rotor by hand, but it does have some drag from the brake pads... so I assume this caliper is locked, and its the culprit of spit sizzling drive flange and caliper?



lockedcaliper1.jpg


lockedcaliper2.jpg


lockedcaliper3.jpg
 
Last edited:
cegusman said:
stuck caliper, time to replace it now. Pretty sure the seals are melted.
Click to expand...

Since it got as hot as an exhaust manifold, I'm assuming it ate my axle seals, ball joints, bearing grease, ect???

I'm not sure how to tear all this crap down, or how to even get my drive flanges off.

Are the dana 44 and corp 10 calipers the same? Are they the same for passenger and driver side? I can hardly imagine the parts store pulling out the right part with their computer system. I've got a 78 with a corp 10, with 7/16" banjo bolt, which I think was a fairly rare combo.

Any ideas what all parts I'm gonna need to buy? Any tips on installing all this crap would be awesome, because if I just assemble it by trail and error, I'm likely to loose my brakes and hit a tree :(
 
Now that I think of it, that explains why my truck seemed held back, and why it was pulling to the left today :doah:
 
Wheel bearings are easy to do. I just did mine when I did the 8 lug swap. First,remove the caliper. Then take out the locking hub. Then there is a small snap ring on the axle shaft. Take that out. Then there is a larger snap ring on the outer perimiter of the hub. It holds the rest of the locking hub in place. After these are removed the whole locking hub comes out. Then there is a nut, a washer and another nut that need to be removed. The nut requires that special hub socket. After these are removed the the rotor will come of now. The bearings are inside of the hub/rotor assembly. You have an outer bearing that is held in by the nuts I mentioned. The inner bearing is held in by a seal. Pop the seal out to take out the inner bearing. Once all of this is off you have a bear spindle. If it got hot I would inspect the spindle to make sure it is not pitted or anything like that. I have to tear mine all back down to paint the backing plates/calipers. So I can take pictures of anything you need.


Dustin.


Oh hit me up on aim if you need. My aim is in my profile.
 
He's got flanges instead of locking hubs.

So he'll have to pound out the chrome dust cap with a punch, take out the outer and inner snap rings, slide the drive flange out, remove the big spring behind it, remove the wheel bearing locknut, remove the wheel bearing lock ring, and remove the wheel bearing adjusting nut. Assuming the caliper is already off, the hub/rotor assembly should slide right off. The outer wheel bearing will fall out if you tip the outer portion downward, so be watchful of how you tip it. The inner wheel bearing will be held in by the seal that's pounded into the rear of the hub assembly.

You'll probably need to replace the races too, so just remove the seal and bearings and start cleaning the crap out from inside the hub. You don't want too much of that old junk in there, and it'll make replacing the races much more pleasant. I'll be around all night, you've got my number.
 
alright, its a '78 3/4ton corp 10 with 7/16 banjo bolts and drive flanges.. it would be awesome if I had part numbers for....

calipers

brake pads

wheel bearings

seals

anything else I might have fried???

I'm gonna have the rotors machined, and replace the calipers and pads on both sides.. I'm debating on whether I'm gonna replace bearings and seals on both sides or not.. I might try to not tear into the side that didn't get hot..

I'm gonna need to find the correct hub socket, and probably get some less sissy snap ring pliers.. anything else anybody can think of me needing??
thanks,
James
 
I had the inner front wheel bearing go out on my K5 and the inner race froze itself onto the spindle and had to be cut off with a Dremmel. Turned out to be a 3 day wheel bearing job trying to pound out the races from the hub.:mad:

I just tonight finished putting new wheel bearings in my Dana 60 (that I'm hoping to have installed under the truck by the end of the weekend :woot:)

Having a big brass drift really made the job alot easier removing the races from the hub. Also a bearing race/seal driver is a lifesaver when trying to install the new races. I got mine from Pep Boys as a loaner tool. I thought the set was worth the $40.00, so I just kept it. I used brake cleaner to blast off all of the old grease from the hub which did make it a lot more fun to put back together.

Good luck.
 
You should be able to check the bearings without tearing anything apart. Jack up that side and try to move the tire from side to side and up and down. Any play and you know something is loose, or toast in there. However, it is pretty easy to tear it apart and check everything out. Count it as a learning experience in case you ever have to do it on the trail.

If you have access to a digital camera take pictures of every step and then just put it back together in reverse order.
 
greyhoundjc said:
I had the inner front wheel bearing go out on my K5 and the inner race froze itself onto the spindle and had to be cut off with a Dremmel. Turned out to be a 3 day wheel bearing job trying to pound out the races from the hub.:mad:

I just tonight finished putting new wheel bearings in my Dana 60 (that I'm hoping to have installed under the truck by the end of the weekend :woot:)

Having a big brass drift really made the job alot easier removing the races from the hub. Also a bearing race/seal driver is a lifesaver when trying to install the new races. I got mine from Pep Boys as a loaner tool. I thought the set was worth the $40.00, so I just kept it. I used brake cleaner to blast off all of the old grease from the hub which did make it a lot more fun to put back together.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

What part of Georgia you from? I'm not too farm from Talbotton. if you're close or gonna be in the area, maybe you can swing by and lend me a hand.. I've got frozen pizza making skills :deal: :wink1:
 
If somebody has the part numbers to the items I need to replace, that would be great :D I have a hard time deciphering the post your part numbers thread, and I'm not even really sure what all parts I need (the name of seals and bearings, ect)
 
I'm located north of Atlanta in Woodstock. If you're close to the area let me and I'll give you a hand.

Your local auto parts store should have everything you need and can look up all of the parts. I like the Timken Bearings and seals and Autozone is the only place around me that sells those.
Basicly for the bearing parts you'll need -
Inner and outer wheel bearings with races
the seal is just called a Wheel Seal

You'll also want to get some high quality grease. I like the Green Grease stuff. It's full synthetic and it has the highest temp rating (500 degeres) of all of the other stuff I could find at the local parts places.
 
I'm way south of Atlanta. I'll try to get the seals, maybe just inspect the bearings, perhaps I can get away with just repacking them.

Does anyone know if dana44 calipers and corp 10 calipers are the same? I'm thinking my truck got a corp 10 pretty early, since most '78 trucks had dana 44's, right?

Anybody know how much it costs to have rotors machined? I'm really betting the one that got smokin hot is warped bad.

thanks,
james
 
Alright guys, I found these numbers in post #15 in this thread http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53116

napa #s for disc swap
242-2023 caliper right
242-2022 caliper left
4885677 rotor (3/4ton front)
ss-728A disc set
82204 caliper bolts
20996 rubber brake hose
7818 fitting for rubber hose to hard line
641-2179 wheel studs

Does anybody know if the 3/4 ton swap is done with corp 10 stuff or dana 44 stuff? If its corp 10, then I'm guessing those caliper numbers would be correct for my k20 corp 10? Do new pads come with calipers, or will I need to buy those seperately?

I'm tempted to save up and go ahead and do a rear disk swap while I'm at it, since I've gotta dig into my break system anyway :thinking:
 
correct me if i am wrong but i think the 10bolt and the 44s are the same from the knuckle out, what month was your suburban made? it might say 78 but if it was made in oct,nov,dec then it is probably considered a 79' and that was the first year for a 10bolt i believe. if you are that worried about it then just ask for the stuff for a 85' 3/4ton truck, my dads old one had a 10bolt.
 
I was just told that if the rear brakes aren't working correctly, that the fronts will overheat quickly, also told that the pads are supposed to have a bit of drag.. so maybe the front isn't screwed up, but the rear drums are full of mud? maybe I didn't bleed the brakes good enough?

should I still buy some new calipers, and try to replace seals and whatnot, or should I just start shopping for parts for the rear disk conversion kit... :thinking:
 
if the caliper was locked, I wouldn't be able to turn the rotor by hand, right?
 
You have a 10 bolt with dana 44 calipers. It's just a screwed up transitional year. 10-bolt calipers normally have a 10mm banjo, and dana 44's have a 7/16 banjo. That's pretty much the only difference. I would order new calipers for a 75 just to make sure you get D44 ones, since that's what your brake lines are set up for. The funny thing is, if you had replaced your calipers when you installed your brake lines, you could have ordered '80 calipers and avoided modifying your brake lines. :rolleyes: I think that 80's calipers were cheaper than the older D44 calipers when I bought mine earlier this year.:doah: And of course now if you get a D60, it'll probably take 10mm bolts, so you'd have to get new brake lines again. :crazy:

And yeah, if your caliper was seized, I wouldn't think you'd be able to rotate the rotors by hand. The only seized calipers I've dealt with had to be lubed like crazy and beat to hell with a BFH just to get them off. Maybe the heat was just from a seized bearing? Did you get anything apart yet? It might be ugly in there, I'd hate to think what your spindle looks like.
 
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