Brake drag/squeak when turning?

[guhfluh]

My truck seems to handle fine when turning and EVERYTHING is new or refurb in the front suspension, steering and brakes. I converted it to disks with spindles from a 73, new bearings, hubs and rotors, one refurb caliper from the parts store and I rebuilt the other caliper. I replaced all the bushings, kingpins, tie rods, etc as well.

I have a brake squeak/squeal when I turn left(not sure too sure about right) and load the right front wheel. The right front brakes drag slightly and make the noise. I can also make the noise if I just lightly step on the pedal when going straight. I have jacked up the wheel before and felt for play, as well as checking the bearing preload on that wheel. I also checked the caliper bracket bushings and found that I had them installed wrong originally, so I reinstalled them the correct way. This was a while back. It has still been making the noise and I think it may be dragging excessively, as I also seem to get way too much brake dust on both the front wheels for the short amount of driving I do.

What do you suggest? How tight should I go with the wheel bearings? I'm scared to burn up a bearing, and I've done quite a few bearing installs on various vehicles over the years without one burning up. What else should I check on?

[1972hiboy]

sounds like something is shifting. If its causing the brake to drage then either something is displacing brake fluid to the caliper to drag the brake or something is shifting to pushing the rotor into the brake pad OR something in your rotating assembly on that side is making contact with something stationary on the truck? you only have so many possibilities

[ultraranger]

My truck seems to handle fine when turning and EVERYTHING is new or refurb in the front suspension, steering and brakes. I converted it to disks with spindles from a 73, new bearings, hubs and rotors, one refurb caliper from the parts store and I rebuilt the other caliper. I replaced all the bushings, kingpins, tie rods, etc as well.

I have a brake squeak/squeal when I turn left(not sure too sure about right) and load the right front wheel. The right front brakes drag slightly and make the noise. I can also make the noise if I just lightly step on the pedal when going straight. I have jacked up the wheel before and felt for play, as well as checking the bearing preload on that wheel. I also checked the caliper bracket bushings and found that I had them installed wrong originally, so I reinstalled them the correct way. This was a while back. It has still been making the noise and I think it may be dragging excessively, as I also seem to get way too much brake dust on both the front wheels for the short amount of driving I do.

What do you suggest? How tight should I go with the wheel bearings? I'm scared to burn up a bearing, and I've done quite a few bearing installs on various vehicles over the years without one burning up. What else should I check on?

Procedure for torquing the front wheel bearings:

1. With wheel rotating, torque adjusting nut to 17-25 ft/lbs.

2. Back adjusting nut off 1/2 turn.

3. Tighten adjusting nut to 10-15 in/lbs.

4. Locate the nut lock on the adjusting nut so that the castellations on the lock are aligned with the cotter pin hole in the spindle.

5. Install a new cotter pin. Bend the ends of the cotter pin around the castellated flange of the nut lock so they don't interfere with the grease cap.

6. Check the front wheel rotation. If the wheel rotates properly, install the grease cap.


What side was the rebuilt caliper put on?

Is there a brake booster on the truck or, are the brakes manual?

What MC is on the truck --drum/drum or disc/drum? Is the MC a parts store rebuilt one or, is it a brand new MC?

Are the flexible caliper hoses new?

Are these single-piston front calipers or, dual-piston?

What brake valve is installed?

[guhfluh]

Well...... Thanks for replyin! Buuut.... I just finished checking on it and "fixing" the issue just as you replied. I say "fixed" because it still doesn't seem like it's correct to me.

The wheel bearings are the culprits, but they seem to require tightening much more than I'm used to to get all the play out of them and seat fully on the races. I jacked up the wheel and checked for play first, and found it clunking up and down with play in the bearing. I played with the preload for a while and settled on just tight enough to take out the play. When I checked the driver side, which wasn't making noise, but still showed signs of excessive brake dust, I found it had play also. I tightened it just the same, just enough to take out any play in the wheel and hub assembly.

I took it for a drive and found the brake pedal to be MUCH better, with much less travel. I had actually gotten in the habit of double pumping the brakes just to firm them up before, even though they did work fine with the first press. There was no more brake drag noise that I could tell either, and I'm sure the steering is better, though I didn't really notice it.

It does have me concerned with how tight they felt, but I'll be checking on them frequently I guess, and I've actually had one other vehicle with the same issue of having to tighten the bearings more than I liked to get the play out-my Dodge 2500 with 334,000 miles on it now. It's been fine with running them that tight for years now.

[guhfluh]

Precedure for torquing the front wheel bearings:

1. With wheel rotating, torque adjusting nut to 17-25 ft/lbs.

2. Back adjusting nut off 1/2 turn.

3. Tighten adjusting nut to 10-15 in/lbs.

4. Locate the nut lock on the adjusting nut so that the castellations on the lock are aligned with the cotter pin hole in the spindle.

5. Install a new cotter pin. Bend the ends of the cotter pin around the castellated flange of the nut lock so they don't interfere with the grease cap.

6. Check the front wheel rotation. If the wheel rotates properly, install the grease cap.


What side was the rebuilt caliper put on?

Is there a brake booster on the truck or, are the brakes manual?

What MC is on the truck --drum/drum or disc/drum? Is the MC a parts store rebuilt one or, is it a brand new MC?

Are the flexible caliper hoses new?

Are these single-piston front calipers or, dual-piston?

What brake valve is installed?

You actually treed my post, but I'll answer your questions anyway, cause it may help and you spent all that time typing it out.

I'm not positive which side the parts store reman is on and which one I rebuilt. I think the parts store one is on the passenger side though.

The brakes are power. I still have the O'Reilly reman booster for a 67 on it and my helper return spring on the pedal.

The MC is a new unit for an Explorer I believe. It's a larger bore one you led me to.

The flex hoses are new.

The calipers are dual piston units that can go on either side, depending on where you put the bleeder and brake hose.

That is actually the procedure I originally used to tighten the bearings, although I went to 40-50 ft/lbs the first time everything was installed. The problem with the procedure is that with the weight of the hub and rotor assemblies, when you loosen the nut 1/2 turn, the bearings slide out of the races and then tightening back just a few in/lbs won't re-seat them. With a light hub and rotor or hub and drum assembly, I've never had the issue, as once you seat the bearings in the races, they don't come back out when you loosen the nut.

[ultraranger]

Precedure for torquing the front wheel bearings:

1. With wheel rotating, torque adjusting nut to 17-25 ft/lbs.

2. Back adjusting nut off 1/2 turn.

3. Tighten adjusting nut to 10-15 in/lbs.

4. Locate the nut lock on the adjusting nut so that the castellations on the lock are aligned with the cotter pin hole in the spindle.

5. Install a new cotter pin. Bend the ends of the cotter pin around the castellated flange of the nut lock so they don't interfere with the grease cap.

6. Check the front wheel rotation. If the wheel rotates properly, install the grease cap.


What side was the rebuilt caliper put on?

Is there a brake booster on the truck or, are the brakes manual?

What MC is on the truck --drum/drum or disc/drum? Is the MC a parts store rebuilt one or, is it a brand new MC?

Are the flexible caliper hoses new?

Are these single-piston front calipers or, dual-piston?

What brake valve is installed?

You actually treed my post, but I'll answer your questions anyway, cause it may help and you spent all that time typing it out.

I'm not positive which side the parts store reman is on and which one I rebuilt. I think the parts store one is on the passenger side though.

The brakes are power. I still have the O'Reilly reman booster for a 67 on it and my helper return spring on the pedal.

The MC is a new unit for an Explorer I believe. It's a larger bore one you led me to.

The flex hoses are new.

The calipers are dual piston units that can go on either side, depending on where you put the bleeder and brake hose.

That is actually the procedure I originally used to tighten the bearings, although I went to 40-50 ft/lbs the first time everything was installed. The problem with the procedure is that with the weight of the hub and rotor assemblies, when you loosen the nut 1/2 turn, the bearings slide out of the races and then tightening back just a few in/lbs won't re-seat them. With a light hub and rotor or hub and drum assembly, I've never had the issue, as once you seat the bearings in the races, they don't come back out when you loosen the nut.

Ahh, I remember now.

I haven't been on here much the past several months. Back in October, I pulled my truck into my shop and started the tear down of the drum brake front suspension to install front discs, as well as a number of other changes to my '69 F100. I just got finished with all the changes a couple of weeks ago and got the front end aligned this week.

The '77 F100 front discs, '75 F350 dual-diaphragm brake booster and the '95 Ford Explorer MC work really well on my truck. It's a BIG improvement from the old front drums that were on it.

Glad if your only problem was just needing to tighten the wheel bearings.