Thread: F350 brake problem , maybe you guys can help

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I'm ready to give up maybe you guys can help figure out this problem. The truck is a 2001 F350 diesel, the problem is everytime that I start to brake heavy or when I'm towing my trailer the truck wants to pull to the left the more weight the worse she gets . I have just rebuilt the whole frontend (balljoints,u joints ) and just redid the the whole front brake system (hoses , pads , calipers , rotors) but it still pulls to the left. Do any of you guys have an idea what the H is causing this ? And I did have the frontend put in line . This really sucks , can't haul my camper to go to any of the shows.

Rocky

No the caliper is not sticking , no leaks , brand new rotors. The truck does have ABS the wheels don't lock up seems to be working. How do I go about checking the proportioning combo valve ?

One guy said that if the frontend was out of line that it would pull like this , but the guys at the Ford garge said that it shouldn't pull even if the wheels were out of line. But I had the frontend checked and the machine said its in the green so its close.

Denny, heres what I did . When I installed the new pads they seemed to be rather tight and didn't want to slide so I posted this on a Ford truck forum and all the guys on there said what they've been doing is filing the metal ears on the pads so they weren't so tight that way the pads float like they should and then I made sure the slide pins were free , but what worked for them isn't working here.

I guess I'll jack her up again and see if anything looks out of place , but it seems to me that this is a problem that may have been starting last fall and has since got worse. When I noticed it was really bad was a few weeks back and found that the left front caliper was hanging up (when I about crashed my truck with my car on the trailer) thats when I decided to put all new brakes , rotors, calipers,hoses up front but its still hanging up . I'm going to check it again.

Rocky,
I've found that FTE doesn't have all the good answers.
You have a solid front axle on that beast rather then the IFS that the '05 and up have( I have an '06). Not sure if you have a 4x4 or 2WD, but worn bushings or a worn ball joint can cause that sort of a problem. Weight transfer during braking can slew the tire - usually out and by adding weight, can make it worse. The ball joints aren't very expensive but the very size of the F350 can make them a bear to change out. OEM Ford ball joints are notoriously poor and are often shot at 25K miles, though 65K seems to be the norm. A bad tie rod - either end, can also cause the problem

Another item to check - a ballooning flex hose, generally on the opposite side from the pull. If the calipers were left dangling on the hose(or dropped with the hose attached) and weren't wired up when the pads were changed, they could have been weakened internally.

No none of the lights have come on, and never have had it checked. Do you think this could be a computer issue causing a problem with the ABS.

Dave, got all my new parts from NAPA, just rebuilt the whole frontend. The only thing that I didn't change is the tie rod but we checked it and it seems to be fine. The truck is 4x4

Originally Posted by Rocky72

Dave, got all my new parts from NAPA, just rebuilt the whole frontend. The only thing that I didn't change is the tie rod but we checked it and it seems to be fine. The truck is 4x4

Should be OK parts then - NAPA is a repackager of others parts and are generally pretty good.

A tie rod can wear at either end - the replaceable as well as the opposite which messes folks up regularly.

Does that '01 have what I would call wishbones coming from the front axle to the frame as my '06. My ancient '79 350 had some donuts at the frame mount that caused a bit of that kind of problem when they rotted out at 17 years of age (along with a lot of other perforated parts).

Guess I'm out of ideas!!!

It has front stabilizer bar and track bar, but seems like all the bushings are in good shape.
And your not theonly one thats out of ideas.

Try swapping sides with the rotors,we cured a big ford like that after a bunch of diagnostic time. Why? I don't know as the rotors looked fine but after swapping sides outa desperation it stopped straight as an arrow. The shop down the road called me about a Ford rollback that would pull only with a car on it and I told em to swap rotors,they called and said it pulled the other direction so they resurfaced the rotors as smooth as possible and cured it. If none of that cures it you need to find a shop with brake pressure gauges to diagnose it, as it more than likely has a stuck dump valve in the ABS controller....

I did think of trying that, but I put drilled and slotted rotors on and they have a left and a right . I was reading that if the ABS sensor on the knuckle has metal dust on it that it will give a false reading, I think tomorrow I'll try cleaning them and see if that works and if not I guess like you said it will have to go to a shop.

May be grasping at a straw here, but check your rear axle mounting. I've had trucks veer around on braking and it was slack in the rear, sometimes a shackle, once a broken main leaf. Could be something like that.

Use a IR temp gun and check both front wheels after test driving.
They should both be really close to the same temp.
It would not hurt to check the rear at the same time.

Originally Posted by DennyW

The pulling when you apply the brakes, has to be brake related.

Is the back brakes adjusted correctly ?? Are the adjusters working freely ?

not if the front suspension is shifting, causing the thrust angle to go off.

OK guys I figured since the sites back up and running and while I have time I'd let you all know how I made out on my truck.
I figured that I had tried just about everything I could so I decided to put a another set of brake pads on and see what happened , so I took the truck down the road pressed on the brake pedal and the truck pulled right instead of left. Took the truck back home and checked it out and found that I forgot to hook up the left vaccum line for the 4 wheel drive , I put it back on and hit the brakes and the truck pulled back to the left like before. So I unhooked both vaccum lines hit the brakes and the truck stopped perfect without pulling to either side. I did this several times (hooking and unhooking the lines) and now the truck seems to be fine.
Just figured I'd post this just in case someone else has a problem like this , eventhough I have no clue what stopped the problem.
Thanks for the help.


Rocky