Brakes & 4x4 questions

[kamaleon]

Hey guys, i have a few issues with my truck at the moment and want to tackle the first two..

When i brake, It brakes fine but the truck pulls to the left, the harder i brake the harder it pulls.. what im i looking at here?? im planning on flushing the system and replacing the front pads and turning the rotors. I take my time braking and also use the engine to brake (6spd)



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The second issue, the 4x4. i have gotten stuck twice now because the 4x4 doesnt want to engage. I have tried to switch to 4x4 before reaching the area were i know im gonna need to get out (steep gravel incline), i turn the truck off while unloading, when im about to leave only the rear wheels engage.

got a friend with the manual hub locks and hes truck (and other trucks) crawls that incline easily even wile puling a 16' trailer.

I think that my auto lock hubs are just not locking anymore but would like to know a more expert opinion/advice before a i swap them for the warner manual ones.

[vitalidle]

Here is a article to give you some info for your brakes.http://www.mightyautoparts.com/pdf/articles/tt86.pdf As far as the hubs see if you have a vacumn leak such as a broken line or bad seals.

[kamaleon]

thanks for the link, interesting..

i'll check for vacum leaks, other than at the vaccum pump, where else should i look?

[vitalidle]

Seems to me somebody on here said the solinoid can go bad in the pump??? I might be giving you some bad info! Im sure somebody will chime in with some better info to start with.

[Dagnuten]

when you flip it to 4 high, does the ac blow out of the vents or the defrost up by the window on the dash? if it goes from the vents to the defrost, it's a vacume leak...

also does it show a 4x4 light?

dan

[kamaleon]

hey Dan, the light does lilght up 4x4 and 4x4 low.. i'll check the ac vents next.. i'll turn the ac on and have the flow voem out the front vents before flipping into 4x4.. I'll post back the result

check the hub seals on the back side of the spindle. That is a VERY common place for a vac leak. Just switch your hubs to lock. That will get you bye untill you get the problem fixed. ON the braking. 98% of the time its the opposite side. Usually its not that one side is pulling harder its that the other side isnt pulling hard enough. Check your system over good and make sure nothings froze. The rear slide pins are common to freeze.

[kamaleon]

ok, checked the AC. I had the AC blowing towards the front, when i switched into 4x4 high cold air slowly started to blow out from the dashboard/windshield vents.. so that indicates a vacume leak?

Im thinking on redoing the brakes, one rotors seems to have more wear than the other which indicates that one side is braking more/less than the other. Caliper slide pins?

How hard is replacing those slide pins? wonder is the guys that is going to be replacing the rotors and pads be able to service the calipers as well..

What else can i get serviced while i get the front rotors and pads replaced?

[Ditty]

On your brakes:
Definately there is a problem with the left wheel getting greater braking force than the right. I would just pull the brakes, replace both sides and turn both rotors as well as bleeding the lines and putting in new brake fluid.

On you 4x4:
You do have a vacuum leak. To fix this you will have to find out where the leak is. It's either in the hubs or in the vac lines going to the hubs. You can just get out and manually turn the hubs to the LOCK position when you know your going out to that incline. My 4x4 auto hubs are leaking as well so I just had it in LOCK the whole winter just in case of snow. Yes, that means the hubs will be locked all of the time, even in 2wd, but you can always hop out and put 'em back into AUTO when your not expecting any trouble.

[kamaleon]

since there is a lot of labor involved in just taking the rotors out i might as well replaced them with good ones.. fluid will be replaced with either syntetic or super dot 4 fluid.. My main concern are the calipers, and service them.

On the hub issue...i tried puttign them into the lock position 'BUT' they wont turn, they are pretty much stuck in auto. Im afraid that if i force them hard into the lock position i may not be able to tur it back into auto or worse brake something in the process.. dont know if thats an internal issue of just dirt/sand that prevents the turn.?!?