Soft brake pedal

[dodge man]

After doing this project, I'm about ready to hold a hand grenade to my chest and pull the pin. I've done several brake jobs over the years, and this one has been a heck of a battle. It started with having to beat the rear rotors off with a 15lb sledge hammer. I had to buy new rotors, new pads, all new drum brake parts and linings, and new calipers, and I hope at $400 I'm done buying parts. I'm not sure of the hours I've spent doing this but maybe as many as 16. I've done brake jobs in a hour in the past. Doing the back brakes is really like doing 4 brakes instead of 2. You have two set of disc brakes, and then two sets of drum brakes which are the e-brakes.

For example, last night the only thing I had left to do was install one brake caliper. It took me a half hour to install it, which is only two bolts. The rubber boots that protect the sliders were always in my way. I just couldn't get the bolts to start. So I spent a half hour getting them started. Thats kind of an example of how the project has gone.

Thanks everyone for the advice. I bought a vacum brake bleeder at lunch today and will bleed the brakes again, including the front. I also thought about how much air was in the calipers when I put them on and wondered where all that air went.

 

[Dmace]

lt started with having to beat the rear rotors off with a 15lb sledge hammer.

You didn't use the manual adjuster to loosen the rear parking brake shoes first did ya? ;-)
Most people forget about that and getting the rotors off the shoes when there's a nice little lip on the rotor is not fun.

I just put drilled and slotted rotors and new ceramic pads all around on my Titan

You might not like that setup in a truck. The cross drilled rotors rarely work better than solid rotors due to less surface area unless your in a race environment where they are very hot all the time. Also, ceramic brake pads are pretty useless until they warm up but no brake dust is nice.

I run OEM rotors and EBC yellowstuff or greenstuff pads on my trucks, cars etc... Very good brake pads!
http://ebcbrakes.com/product/yellowstuff-high-friction-truck-upgrade-pads/

 

[timswi]

What I've found is that if you drive the truck about 15 miles at around 40mph the pedal should come back up..This has been my experience on a few brands of pickups...This is assumiing the brakes work but are just spongy.

 

[dodge man]

Yes, I did back off the e-brake linings before I tried getting the rotors off. It looked like they were rusted on the hubs.

I figured out what the problem was and I don't feel to good about myself at the moment. There is a right and left side for the calipers and I had them on the wrong side. This put the bleeding screws on the bottom. This left air in the area behind brake pistons with no place to go. Pretty obvious when you take a step back and look at it, but wasn't obvious to me last night. I swapped them to the correct side and bleed them and now every thing is O.K.

 

[timswi]

Yes, I did back off the e-brake linings before I tried getting the rotors off. It looked like they were rusted on the hubs.

I figured out what the problem was and I don't feel to good about myself at the moment. There is a right and left side for the calipers and I had them on the wrong side. This put the bleeding screws on the bottom. This left air in the area behind brake pistons with no place to go. Pretty obvious when you take a step back and look at it, but wasn't obvious to me last night. I swapped them to the correct side and bleed them and now every thing is O.K.

That's good news....the driving thing I was referring to assumes all of the air is out of the system...if you drive it a little, you'll probably notice the pedal stiffening up even more once the ABS system re-learns...

I've had spongy pedals after manual bleeding, even with all of the air out..

 

[Dmace]

I'm surprised you were able to get the brake hoses on and not twisted with them swapped. We all make mistakes, glad it's all set now.

 

[dodge man]

The calipers are actually almost a perfect mirror image, other than the bleeder being on the top or the bottom depending on if its for the left or right. The brake line mounts near the middle of the caliper so that didn't matter.

 

[Diamondpilot]

You didn't use the manual adjuster to loosen the rear parking brake shoes first did ya? ;-)
Most people forget about that and getting the rotors off the shoes when there's a nice little lip on the rotor is not fun.

You might not like that setup in a truck. The cross drilled rotors rarely work better than solid rotors due to less surface area unless your in a race environment where they are very hot all the time. Also, ceramic brake pads are pretty useless until they warm up but no brake dust is nice.

I run OEM rotors and EBC yellowstuff or greenstuff pads on my trucks, cars etc... Very good brake pads!
http://ebcbrakes.com/product/yellowstuff-high-friction-truck-upgrade-pads/

I like the drilled and slotted rotors because the never seem to warp. I put them on other trucks and cars with nothing but positive results including twice the rotors life.

Its very easy to overheat brakes when pulling big loads in back country roads with surge brakes. Everyone I know with every brand of tow vehicle has had issues but the drilled and slotted rotors seem to always be the cure.

Chris

 

[Diamondpilot]

Yes, I did back off the e-brake linings before I tried getting the rotors off. It looked like they were rusted on the hubs.

I figured out what the problem was and I don't feel to good about myself at the moment. There is a right and left side for the calipers and I had them on the wrong side. This put the bleeding screws on the bottom. This left air in the area behind brake pistons with no place to go. Pretty obvious when you take a step back and look at it, but wasn't obvious to me last night. I swapped them to the correct side and bleed them and now every thing is O.K.

Your not the first to do that. Glad it was a simple fix.

Chris