Big Brake Kit installed - pulling left when I brake

[dabomb]

Sup guys! Just finished installing the big brake kit for my 35’s. Maaaaaaaajor difference. Anywho I just finished the break in procedure and I’m finding that the Jeep pulls very hard left upon braking.

Is that a air/bleed problem?

Sucks I gotta pull the 35’s off again haha. Think I might bleed all of them, noticed the new calipers had a lot of air in them, went through a ton of fluid.

Btw the brake kit is well worth the coin, locked up the wheels for the first time ever, I couldn’t even do that on 30’s!

 

[Alex01]

Did you bleed them furthest from the master (back right) to closest?

Call (tomorrow) or pm @mrblaine he has top notch customer service.

 

[mrblaine]

Sup guys! Just finished installing the big brake kit for my 35’s. Maaaaaaaajor difference. Anywho I just finished the break in procedure and I’m finding that the Jeep pulls very hard left upon braking.

Is that a air/bleed problem?

Sucks I gotta pull the 35’s off again haha. Think I might bleed all of them, noticed the new calipers had a lot of air in them, went through a ton of fluid.

Btw the brake kit is well worth the coin, locked up the wheels for the first time ever, I couldn’t even do that on 30’s!

Rule #1 when it comes to a pull under braking. It is not how, when, if, or in what order you bleed the system. The system is a very basic hydraulic circuit. The front two calipers are common to each other via a tee in the combo block, the rear two wheel cylinders (a caliper is considered a wheel cylinder) are common to each other via the tee on the axle tube. As such, whatever pressure is in one side will be shared exactly by the other side since it is impossible to have variances in pressure inside a sealed viable system.

It is likely due to not broken in fully, caliper piston knockback on one side, improperly ground wheel bearing flange that lets the rotor wobble slightly, or the extra braking power is causing a deficiency to present itself in something like a worn control arm bushing, older unit bearing, steering component, alignment, or similar.

Generally though, a hard left pull is usually due to an overfilled grease boot on the passenger knuckle. Diving under braking causes the suspension to compress, steering follows it, compresses the boot, grease squirts onto the rotor right through that little hole in the dust shield by the steering arm, and that causes the left side to work much better. Really good place to check if the pull is intermittent or goes away until you do another hard stop.

 

[dabomb]

Thanks for the detailed reply Blaine. The hydraulic system makes sense, so it wouldn't be an air problem. Looks like I have some hunting to do. It's possible I didn't get enough of a chamfer on that wheel bearing. Also likely, my wheel bearing is pretty worn, I've been fighting vibrations with the old tires which killed my DS ujoints. Finally getting to that now, might've killed some other components in the process.

 

[mrblaine]

Thanks for the detailed reply Blaine. The hydraulic system makes sense, so it wouldn't be an air problem. Looks like I have some hunting to do. It's possible I didn't get enough of a chamfer on that wheel bearing. Also likely, my wheel bearing is pretty worn, I've been fighting vibrations with the old tires which killed my DS ujoints. Finally getting to that now, might've killed some other components in the process.

I once went back and forth with a customer of a shop that installs our kits. Many emails with me explaining how the brakes work, why it is likely not the shop's fault that his rig developed a hard pull right after the install. I would explain it, he said he had checked those items and they are good, it has to be the brakes. It finally got to the point where I told him to swing by and we would disassemble it and reinstall it to see if there was a defect in the kit. If there was no defect, he pays for our time, if there is a defect in either the kit or the installation, it would all be free including the parts if needed.

Take the driver's side apart, it is perfect. Go to the passenger side, pull the tire and the rotor is wobbling. I point to it and ask him why he didn't explain that to me or fix it. "I looked it up on Google, it is supposed to wobble like that when the tire is off." I stared at him with the grumpy face for a bit then I asked him if Google explained that having a wheel spacer installed is exactly the same as having a tire installed and at no point should there be any wobble in a rotor that is clamped to the wheel bearing with a wheel spacer. Uh, no.

Right, now you get to pay for my time, buy a unit bearing, and learn how to listen when folks who know what they are doing tell you how to diagnose things. He did not apologize for slamming the shop or wasting hours of my time writing out long responses to his problem which he claimed to have done perfectly for every item.

 

[dabomb]

haha I bet you put up with lots of very hard headed people. They can certainly be a PIA to work with! And it most definitely can't be their fault, it's absolutely your fault

thanks for taking the time to explain it. I knew it wasn't in your product, even upon inspection I can see the quality and care put into it. Well worth the coin.

Hey are you still offering money for the old rotors/calipers? I had read somewhere you were doing that. If not I don't mind shipping them if y'all pay shipping — if you guys can rework them in any way.

 

[mrblaine]

haha I bet you put up with lots of very hard headed people. They can certainly be a PIA to work with! And it most definitely can't be their fault, it's absolutely your fault

thanks for taking the time to explain it. I knew it wasn't in your product, even upon inspection I can see the quality and care put into it. Well worth the coin.

Hey are you still offering money for the old rotors/calipers? I had read somewhere you were doing that. If not I don't mind shipping them if y'all pay shipping — if you guys can rework them in any way.

The original kits were done on reworked OEM knuckles and we needed the cores. It finally got to the point where cores were too hard to get. When Vanco was selling the kits, I delivered 400 pair of core knuckles to them that I located at various points in time. I located another 300 pair and used them when we took over production. Those are conservative numbers that don't take into account me scrabbling for every core pair I could get my hands on. Even with those numbers, Van couldn't get cores back and he charged a 200 dollar core fee. we sent notices in the kits to purchase cores. I finally got tired of chasing cores and just built all new knuckles.