Brake Question

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78 K-10

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so when I had my tires rotated and re-balanced. The assistant manger at my local les schwabb said my brakes looked fine. I was right there and I thought so too. Now yesterday I had a real funky experince. going down a relatively steep hill where the speed limit goes from 35 to 25 as I was braking the truck started to shudder and started rocking side to side. freaked me out.

so Im thinking A. -warped rotors on the front? possibly a malfunctioning brake line making only one side work(which made the side to side bounce)

oh and wait a minute, Ive got drums in the back so how could a visual inspection be sufficient.

The weather is about to get nasty so If I need to spend a day or two going through the brake system I wanna do it soon.

thanks boys
 

davbell22602

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so when I had my tires rotated and re-balanced. The assistant manger at my local les schwabb said my brakes looked fine. I was right there and I thought so too. Now yesterday I had a real funky experince. going down a relatively steep hill where the speed limit goes from 35 to 25 as I was braking the truck started to shudder and started rocking side to side. freaked me out.

so Im thinking A. -warped rotors on the front? possibly a malfunctioning brake line making only one side work(which made the side to side bounce)

oh and wait a minute, Ive got drums in the back so how could a visual inspection be sufficient.

The weather is about to get nasty so If I need to spend a day or two going through the brake system I wanna do it soon.

thanks boys

Sounds like to me like bad shocks. Never heard of a brake problem causing a vehicle to rock from side to side.
 

78 K-10

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1 month old billsteins.. and has only happened going down a steep hill.
 

davbell22602

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1 month old billsteins.. and has only happened going down a steep hill.

Ok, Pull the front wheels and check to see what the lateral runout and parrellizm is on the rotors. Be sure to a micrometer and not a dial caliper for the lateral runout.
 

78 K-10

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ok I will in the next day or two.

Most likely a problem in the front huh?

Is there an acceptable amount of play?

Is this a dangerous problem?

thanks bud
 

davbell22602

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ok I will in the next day or two.

Most likely a problem in the front huh?

Is there an acceptable amount of play?

Is this a dangerous problem?

thanks bud

If a rotor is warped replace both rotors. If you have less than half of the pad left then replace the pads as well. Same goes for brake calipers too.

Yea this can be dangerous cause its related to your brakes. A warped rotor will wear down your pads faster than normal rotor thats not warped.
 

bobehud

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Do you have ABS on this truck ,have heard of this before....never mind a 78'
could be warped rotors...ck those like this safe stretch of road get up to about 55 and put truck i neutral and apply brakes HARD DO NOT LOCKED THEM UP this takes the trans and everything but the brakes out of slowing down the truck.If its in the front you will feel it in the steering wheel..drums are bad you will feel it in the seat of your pants and brake pedal.

Either one will sometimes give a pulse in the pedal

Dont think its brakes..id be checking my steering shock if it has one

we call that the death wobble...no kidding
 
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crazy4offroad

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78 K10 should be balljoint front end instead of kingpin unless someone swapped in a different front axle. Sounds to me like a slightly warped rotor exacerbating bad balljoints.
 

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