Truck pulls under braking

[dieselboy]

My truck pulls to the left when I do an emergency brake. It has done this for some time. I initially thought it was pads so I had them changed but it continued to do it afterwards.
I had some fluid drained from the front brake supply, this improved the brakes but did not cure the problem.
I need a little guidance on how to move forward with this next? Not sure whether I will need to do a complete fluid change (although I should do really as I've had the truck 2 years and not changed it since owning)
Or would this point to a weak caliper or piston?
Cheers,

[stormforce]

might be the caliper sticking/seized

[Growler]

Sounds to me like you may have a sticky piston or two in the offside caliper, but would also be worth checking your tyres are both at the same/correct pressure.

[dieselboy]

Sounds to me like you may have a sticky piston or two in the offside caliper, but would also be worth checking your tyres are both at the same/correct pressure.

Yes, pumped them last week to go up the M1. The sticky caliper / piston can be fixed can it?

[TOYOTATONY]

Yes, pumped them last week to go up the M1. The sticky caliper / piston can be fixed can it?

More often that not they can be fixed ok. No need to take it all apart for this, other than taking the wheel off of course. A case of relieving the system pressure, (slightly undoing the bleed valve until it seeps fluid,)
push back the pistons as far as you can into the caliper, (large hefty srewdriver or similar in between piston & metal side of brake pad,) then apply brakes using foot pedal. Do that a few times with a bit of WD40 to help free things up.

Be careful not to damage brake linings!

Bleed brakes & top up brake fluid as required.

That's how I would it. Others might have another way.

Worse case is you have to remove caliper & strip it down.

Have fun.

[hellmett]

re

Hi Mate,

I was having the same issue but mine was swerving to the right.

Check your wishbone bushes!

Scarey Brakes

I think I have now sussed that it was the bushes on the lower offside wishbone being fubar that was causing it.

I checked EVERYTHING, calipers, disks etc. etc.

I have now changed disks, wishbone bushes, bronze bushes and seals, CV boots & grease, and as soon as they arrive, the track rods as well (one of them broke when I was putting it back on).

Almost certain it was the wishbone bushes as I had a strange problem with the shock on the same side as well, it all seems to add up!

Scraped Shock

As soon as the Surf is driving again I'll post up my report as this had me freaked out for a long time.

Good luck!

Gary

[red barron]

More often that not they can be fixed ok. No need to take it all apart for this, other than taking the wheel off of course. A case of relieving the system pressure, (slightly undoing the bleed valve until it seeps fluid,)
push back the pistons as far as you can into the caliper, (large hefty srewdriver or similar in between piston & metal side of brake pad,) then apply brakes using foot pedal. Do that a few times with a bit of WD40 to help free things up.

Be careful not to damage brake linings!

Bleed brakes & top up brake fluid as required.

That's how I would it. Others might have another way.

Worse case is you have to remove caliper & strip it down.

Have fun.

If you have to overhaul the calliper, which is not too difficult apart from disconnecting the pipes and removing the calliper itself,(be aware this can open up a can of worms if the components are siezed) you can replace the piston seals ect after you've gently cleaned out the cylinders with some very fine emery cloth.The kits are available here!
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/Bigg-Red__W0QQ_armrsZ1
Regards

[Albannach]

A case of relieving the system pressure, (slightly undoing the bleed valve until it seeps fluid,)

Bad advice. I've no idea why anyone would want to do that. When the brake pedal is at rest (up), there is no system pressure.

[dieselboy]

Hmm. Brakes are not something I enjoy doing!
I have it booked in to a friends garage on Monday as I've the day off
I'll mention what you lot have said here and hopefully we can spot something.
One other thing to may be mention is that the MOT advisory said "slight play in steering idler". I haven't looked up what this part is yet. It may or may not be related.

[dieselboy]

Hi Mate,

I was having the same issue but mine was swerving to the right.

Check your wishbone bushes!

Scarey Brakes

I think I have now sussed that it was the bushes on the lower offside wishbone being fubar that was causing it.

I checked EVERYTHING, calipers, disks etc. etc.

I have now changed disks, wishbone bushes, bronze bushes and seals, CV boots & grease, and as soon as they arrive, the track rods as well (one of them broke when I was putting it back on).

Almost certain it was the wishbone bushes as I had a strange problem with the shock on the same side as well, it all seems to add up!

Scraped Shock

As soon as the Surf is driving again I'll post up my report as this had me freaked out for a long time.

Good luck!

Gary

Please do! Hopefully you have it fixed - Thanks for your links.
Cheers,
Tony

[NiftyNev]

Worse case is you have to remove caliper & strip it down.

That's the only way to do it if the pistons are seizing. Shortcuts like you mention, and the use of WD40 are things I would not recommend.

Do it right or don't do it at all.

Nev

[hellmett]

Re

I just checked Milner's and Roughtrax and they both seem to be selling the wrong pads for the disks in their 'Brakes' sections.

You would have thought that buying a set of disks and pads from them they would have matched up!

Maybe they are as unaware as we were in the wierd pad sizes!