Problems with new front brakes

[Ackattack]

Yesterday I changed out all the front brake components on my 69 (disc brakes from an '80). I got new rotors, bearings, seals, dust caps, calipers, and hoses.

I got it all installed and bled and went for a test drive.

It seemed to be stopping fine, except it would pull to the right pretty hard. Also as i was driving around it was pulling a little to the left or just kinda wondered around like it was out of alignment. When I got home I took a look at stuff and you could see that the left side was getting hot. I touched the caliper on the right side and it was warm. The left side was hot.

So it seems that the left side is frozen. So do you think I should just take it back and get another new caliper or what?

Thought I'd ask before I just take it back.

[spatz]

1st of all see if the wheel will spin when you jack the left side up. Im doubting it will by your description. thenext thingtodo would be to loosen the bleeder because it may be under pressure. after that check and see if wheel has loosend up to turn freely and if it does your caliper is ok and you have a bad brake hose collapseing holding pressure. Thisis considering that everything was ok prior to the parts change.

[Meatman]

Everything was working fine before? Definitely sounds like a caliper is hanging up for some reason. Id pull calipers off check the bolts and bushings out. Also clean up surfaces where they touch the spindle. Those can get crudy and not let the calipers float like they should.

[Ackattack]

Originally Posted by spatz

1st of all see if the wheel will spin when you jack the left side up. Im doubting it will by your description. thenext thingtodo would be to loosen the bleeder because it may be under pressure. after that check and see if wheel has loosend up to turn freely and if it does your caliper is ok and you have a bad brake hose collapseing holding pressure. Thisis considering that everything was ok prior to the parts change.

Yeah, I'm thinking it won't spin freely. I pulled the truck into the garage (just barely) and wiped up the spilled brake fluid. Then I tried pushing the truck forward by hand....no go.

I cleaned the spindle where the calipers mount and they were relatively clean to begin with.

The brakes were working "fine" before this. Just getting worn down so it was time to replace.

Now that I think of it, I did have to bend the brake hose fitting a little to get it to bolt to the caliper. With the drop spindles, the hose bent directly into the upper ball joint, so I had to do a little tweaking on it. Maybe it is acting as a check valve. Guess we'll see if its the brake caliper or hose tomorrow.

[Meatman]

You'd have to bend those hoses pretty freakin sharp to kink them. They are thick as hell. Did you buy reman calipers? What about the master cylinder? Is it old. Wondering if everything else in the system being new and functioning like it should...maybe...the master might be crapping out.

[Ackattack]

changed out the caliper tonight and re-bled the brakes and all works well!

One more thing of my to-do list