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Rear Brake cylinder froze up

3K views 12 replies 4 participants last post by  indiana lineman 
#1 ·
Got home from work Friday and immediately smelled the brakes when I got out of the truck.

Sure enough - passenger side rear was frozen.

Last time I flushed the brakes was 3 years ago. Fluid didn't look terrible, but probably should flush them every two years.

I also decided to redo the drivers side brakes as well, just because the tools were already out - lol. Also took time to install some SS braided hose at each rear brake and also installed speed bleeders all around.

Glad it is done! I already had the pads, I had bought them a few years ago because I figured it would be time at 100k miles, but when I looked at them (at 100k miles), there was more than half of the pad remaining. Even now at 155k, there was a lot left. I am sure impressed w/ the original pads!

Not exactly the first job I wanted to do after shoulder surgery, but oh well!
 
#2 ·
My wife has burned up the brakes twice, maybe 3 times now, I've lost count. Each time was towing the horses in steep mountain grades, but I've come to the conclusion that she dosen't set the trailer brake high enough. But it's always my fault anyway, so I just fix it.

At the begining of this last winter, I noticed my rt-front wheel looking ****ed, found the rt-front wheel bearing and hub was totally done-loose-worn out. It was so bad the brake rotor was rubbing into the caliper mounting spindle-bracket, no odd noise or weird handling symptoms at all, but scored the rotor. New hub from Ford and another front set of rotors and pads too.

Bismic...I assume you replaced the rear caliper-s too?

I'll have to look up what speed bleeders are.

Steel braided lines, now that nice, they will last along time, all the ones I've seen sure do.

I almost think the brakes are a bit too small on the single rear wheel trucks for the weight these trucks have.

On the high performance model cars and suv's I work on the brakes are huge, much bigger than the ones on our trucks and these vehicles weigh alot less. Some even have dual sets of brake pads up front, thats 4 brake pads per wheel up front.

Harry
 
#3 ·
It has been quite a while since I have towed anything heavy. That's probably why I still had the pad life left.

I did replace both rear calipers. Only had one new caliper locally, had to go with a remanned for the other. Replaced/greased the slide pins also.
 
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#4 ·
Rear Brake cylinder froze up :punish

Rear brake caliper froze up. :)

Hope your shoulder gets better. Yep, 150k aint too bad.

The brakes were sized for 13.5k commercial use so when you're a consumer driver you can get a lot out of them, and like you had the mechanical issues are usually what get you rather then the wear out. Actually in consumer use they run pretty cool compared to pass cars and SUVs.

Harry the issue to sizing the brake rotors is what size wheel and tire is selected for use on the weight load and how thick the caliper's bridge has too be to withstand spreading, i.e. like what would happen with an over torqued C-clamp. You need the pad assembly to stay as parallel to the rotor's rubbing surfaces as possible. And that bridge thickness is dependent on the size of caliper piston(s) surface area you are going to use.

And the caliper pistons size is limited by how much volume of fluid gets one-stroke pumped by the size of the master cylinder piston, the comfortable amount of pedal travel, the brake pedal ratio and of course the maximum pedal force allowed by law under the FMVSS rules.

After all that we can figure out what friction materiel is going to be needed.

So to use the pun, the brake guys gets squeezed between the application system guys (FMVSS, pedal, booster and master cylinder) and the suspension wheel/tire guys (along with ride height).

And yes it is expected that the trailer will be designed to "carry" it's own braking loads, but a marriage of disc braked vehicles with drum braked trailers is not a good one, just like a disc braked front axle with a drum braked rear axle was never a good one.
 
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#5 ·
LOL - I stand corrected. This morning when I re-read what I wrote, I was expecting to hear from "someone"!

Brakes still feel a little spongy. I will try bleeding them some more.

Times like this I am especially thankful for the 05+ model year!!
 
#8 ·
Nothing gets past Jack when it comes to brakes, but your not totally off track with the thread name, as the caliper piston is round like a cylinder.:)

Harry
 
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#6 ·
Just out of curiosity, and the fact that I'll need brakes in the future, is the go to set to use the Ford pads? I've read good and bad about all the fancier new designs.

Don't mean to jump into the middle of your thread.
 
#7 ·
Yes, factory pads are best with factory rotors. The aftermarket drilled and slotted brake rotors actually decrease the available brake rotor surface area. The only way those type brake systems are effective is when everything is increased in size to make up for the loss of friction area.

Harry
 
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#9 ·
Agreed - the factory OE pads are best, BUT - Ford sells different quality pads. Jack informed us of that fact a while back. You want the Ford Premium and not the Motorcraft pads.

05-07 SRW:

Front: BC3Z-2001-C
Rear: 5C3Z-2200-AA
 
#12 ·
Edit - looks like the front pad part numbers have been updated:

BC3Z-2001-F (4WD)
BC3Z-2001-E is for 2WD
 
#10 ·
Mark,

When I saw that I was "why the h*** did write that?" I've known Mark for many years and I know he knows those aren't wheel cylinders!

Lineman,

The '05+ OE pads were a much better compound then what was selected for the '99-04 platform. It incorporated a higher friction level, a little more rotor abrasive characteristic to keep the rotors true, and kept the OE characteristic of exceptional wear, noise abatement and fade resistance.

Unless there is something you changed in the operating parameters such as a significant increase in tire rolling radius, or heavy tow, those OE (not Motorcraft red box) pads are hard to beat. You can go to Hawk LTS or Porter pads to increase friction levels, reduce pedal force, or get a little more fade resistance, but you do lose out in some of the other characteristics.

On my '03 I'm using the Hawk LTS pads. If I had an '05, I'd be using the OE pads. And I'm not getting anything free these days.
 
#11 · (Edited)
Looks like Mark and Harry posted while I was writing.

Harry, I came back to add something else to you concerning your comment about the size of the brakes. A big factor other then the restrictions of designed wheel size is what is the top operating speed or capable speed of the vehicle.

For the SuperDuty by NHTSA we did stopping distance tests up to 80mph at GVW. Pass car vehicles also do that but you also have to design to the highest speed the vehicle will go, above that of NHTSA rules.

The energy dissipated during braking is not only a factor of weight, but also by physics that doubling the speed squares the energy. If I remember correctly the SDs are computer limited to 98 mph, not that I plan on doing that with my truck, but it was pretty interesting with the test trucks at work running up to 85 to do the 80mph stops. Getting back to point, a high performance pass car with a top speed in the 150mph area can actually need brakes with a higher capacity then a 12k SuperDuty.

And that gets into towing. If people are doing a heavy tow one of the easiest things they can do to reduce issues on descents is to lower the speed. It can make a huge difference.
 
#13 ·
Thank you much for the interesting comments and answers. Learn something new everyday.

You may have noticed that I have 08 wheels and tires on my 05, got a good deal on them and find comfort in that they were designed for the Super Duty. Other than that she rolls stock. I do haul the 5th wheel with the truck so it gets a workout on occasion.

This brings me to my entry in the thread. Figuring that lugging that camper around, and my daily driving, that I should be looking into some brakes soon.

Although I don't get involved in the conversation to often I enjoy learning what you guys have to say on here.
 
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