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1994 F-150: Rumbling front brakes after brake job?

F150 1994 105K Miles, 6 cyl, ABS rear only

Several weeks ago, I began hearing rumbling from front end when brakes were applied. I figured it was time for new brakes and just finished replacing rotors, pads, bearings, etc this morning.

BTW, new rotors were a good idea, one of the old ones looked particularly bad.

Unfortunately, the rumbling is still there, about the same volume as before, only when pressing the brake pedal

Stopping distance is normal.

When I first drove it down the street slowly, it was very quiet and stopping was normal. Got up to about 25 MPH and did some heavier stops. Felt a shudder/pop in the front end (once) and the sound returned. All in the space of 1/2 mile and five minutes.

Steering, tracking, etc seem normal. Visually inspected rear brakes and they seemed okay

Has anyone experienced this before?

Thanks for any experiences/ideas you may share.

James

Reply to
James3678
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I'll assume you had the new races installed on the new rotors........

Ok, that takes a drive in shim with rubber, right? Did you lube the crap otta them before you drove them in? Also, most people don't get their bearing near tight enough.......You cinch them up real good with a wrench while turning the rotor or wheel, hold it in place with your finger to keep out the slack, back off a bit, and finger tight again as tight as you can (Timken Manaul). Your 150 might even call for a torque. My f250 calls for 50 lbs..

HTH

Reply to
Teddy Bear

The pop when applying the brake along with a noise steers me toward the strut bushings. If the bushings are badly worn, you can have metal to metal contact during braking which transmits a lot of road noise. Some of the early Explorers had these symptoms on the right side because of heat damage to the bushings before heat shields were installed on them during recall. The F series has the same system and they do wear out. Another check point is to be sure the pads are snugg and fitted properly in the calipre and holder.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

Interesting as I have the same noise while turning slowly. What kind of job is it to replace these??

Reply to
Teddy Bear

File this one under bozo.....

I put one of the brake pads in backwards.

Reversed it and all is well

Thanks for all the input.

James3678 (aka bozo)

Reply to
James3678

I don't even want to ask!!! But, that seems like it would be a problem. Hope you didn't hit the rotor with metal.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

It can be a bear of a job if you don't have a good jack and stands. An air wrench is really nice unless you are trying to get into shape. The axle has to be coaxed forward out of the strut mount. Most of the time, you will have to disconnect the shocks and loosen the front strut bolt at the axle to allow it enough movement. I've done a couple of them by removing the axle pivot bolt to just drop the axle out of the frame on the jack. It is not a complicated job but, it can get physical until you figure out how to work it smart. It will sometimes fight back.

If you have this while turning, you may want to check the frame crossmembers very carefully as some of them had to have the rivits replaced with bolts because of working loose. There was a TSB on that also. Sorry, don't have it. This is a job best left to someone equipped to grind the heads off the rivits and drive them out. My '93 had this done in less the 10k miles under warranty.

Lugnut

Reply to
lugnut

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