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I spent the day today replacing every component on the rear brakes. New powder-coated calipers and caliper brackets, pads, zinc-plated slotted rotors (because the price was right), bolts, clips, well greased slide-pins, etc... We'll see how long my inside pads last now...
I also opened up the rear axle to inspect the limited slip that I rebuilt a couple years ago. Everything looked great, and the axle shafts still have very little end play.. New synthetic L/S oil..
The extra bad news was that I found that the rear frame crossmembers are all shot. The fuel tank was hanging by one strap. So it looks like I'll be cutting the rear of the truck off next spring and welding in a new rear frame section from one of my parts trucks. IF the engine/trans lasts through the winter..
Trying to mount the rotor but it does not sit flush on the hub. Looks like it doesnt want to sit on the wheel studs easily. I see the back of the stud holes are tapered, is this a press fit once the wheel and lugs are torqued down?
Last edited by afkrejci90; 10-09-2020 at 01:53 PM.
The brackets were for a GT. I also swapped them right/left and left/right like you have to after cutting them. Yes, the rotors are solid and not vented. The rotors are centered in the caliper bracket perfectly with minimal shimming. Still wears the inside pads like crazy. Makes zero sense to me. That's why I still believe it's a residual pressure valve doing it. It might have something to do with model year of Ranger and the braking systems that they were equipped with in those years?
I have an 03 4.0 4x4 that I'm gonna be converting soon so I'm pretty concerned about your problem. Do you use your parking brake regularly? Those calipers are designed to mash the inside pad into the rotor when the parking brake is set. Might have something to do with it.
I have had zero issues with my cobra setup and it's been installed for over 5 years and probably 50k now l. I believe the is having an isolated incident.
I have had zero issues with my cobra setup and it's been installed for over 5 years and probably 50k now l. I believe the is having an isolated incident.
Dewey
Would you consider the late calipers with electric parking brake?
Small brake shoes inside the rotor are useless in my application. Looking everywhere for advice or part numbers that fit my 2003 Xplorer axle without too much hassle. Thanks
Sadly explorer discs and cobra swap discs are two completely different animals. If you cant seem to get the parking brake shoes adjusted, theres always the option to plumb in a hydraulic parking brake that can be hand actuated. I hate the parking shoes too, my f350 has them and they havent worked since I bought the truck nearly a year ago. Eventually I'll pull it all apart and try to repair it, but they seem to always suck. My wife had a 08 ford edge that had them and when i tried to fix them, a previous owner had removed the actuator on one side so they were completely useless.
I'm getting noise from these brakes in low speed going forward or reverse after just applying the brakes. Almost as if the pressure is not releasing in the calipers. Once I get going fast enough it goes away. Made sure the discs were aligned when setting it up. Any idea what could be the cause?
What type of pads did you use? Could just be cheaper material. How old is the setup? Were the calipers new(reman) and did you use rubber lines or ss lines?
Just installed everything back in October. New Powerstop calipers and rubber lines. Not sure what pads they were from Oreilly's, went through a few different pads because they varied in thickness and wouldn't fit on the rotor. I'm sure they weren't ceramic.
Still having the exact same issues with wearing brake pads like crazy. No amount of corrective shimming has fixed the issue. It's mainly on the passenger side rear but both sides do exhibit rapid wear on the pads. I really need to bring my spare axle over to the house, pull the shafts, and switch back to drum brakes.
I recently pulled apart my rear brakes (Cobra) to find that the brakes were worn unevenly as well. They're not down to the base of the pad, but you can tell they're uneven. I've had the pads on there for quite a few years now, so I need to replace them soon, but it's disheartening knowing they will wear uneven as well.
I just checked my rear rotor temps after driving a round trip of 50 miles in a very, very spirited manner. One rear rotor was 450 degrees, and the other was 480 degrees. The rear aluminum rims were both too hot to keep your hand on.
The front rotors were both at 140 degrees each. You could say I have a rear brake drag problem... lol
I went to pick up a new rear center brake hose to see if it's collapsed internally and holding pressure on the rear brakes. I'm still leaning towards there being a residual pressure valve built in to the master cylinder or the ABS unit for the rear brake circuit, to overcome the drum springs to keep the shoes from retracting all the time. Usually that kind of valve holds about 10psi on the rear system.
Hopefully a simple rubber hose fixes this issue, but I have my doubts.
We can drop info all day about how and why the system uses the residual valves. Until some takes apart a master cylinder and checks for the valves, we will never know. ABS units sometimes hold some pressure and act like residual valves. The height of the master cylinder above the front wheels provides enough pressure for the front disc brakes to not back off from the rotor to much. The rear drums may need some help because of the strong springs trying to force the shoes inward away from the drums. If the valves are indeed in the master cylinder, then they should be removable and swapped for front disc 2psi units from another MC. I've done a lot of old cars and we've always had to add the residual valves even when using a disc brake MC because the MC was mounted low or under the floor.
I'm thinking that the ABS valve block has a built-in residual valve like he mentions in that thread. There's no other explanation for my dragging rear brakes, unless it's the rubber center hose in the rear that is bad internally. I'll be switching it out this weekend in hopes of an easy fix.
Thank you for the replies everyone. These dragging rear brakes has me pulling my hair out!
This has me curious as all hell. I need to check my brakes. I have all OE brakes on my truck. If I can track down the stuff, I think I will try to check the pressures in the brake system with the truck sitting on stands. If there are indeed pressure residual valves, there should be 2psi on the fronts and 10 psi on the rear drums. If there was 10 psi at the rear wheel cylinders, then why do the wheel cylinders have internal springs to hold them out and why doesn't the 10 psi blow the wheel cylinder pistons out when the brake shoes are off? I've rebuilt my wheel cylinders once because my parts supplier was out of remans. It takes less than 10psi of force to push the wheel cylinder pistons out of their bores. This is a real *** scratcher.
I have a 2006 4wd B4000, and I just started converting the rear of my truck from shoes to discs with the north race cars disc conversion kit. I went with the v6/gt rear calipers (I had no reason to want the cobra's) I've removed the axles and swapped over the new brackets and I have them in position just for a test fit before I take everything back apart for painting.
How is everyone taking care of the parking brake on this swap? Is there an easy way or something available so I don't need to make a completely new cable setup from scratch? The kit came with a pair of parking brake cables, but it is a mustang setup and on a mustang all of the parking brake cabling comes down the center of the vehicle (near the driveshaft) not way down the drivers side like on our trucks.
For those that are having dragging brakes after the swap, try an Explorer rear disc master cylinder. The pressure residual valves could be in there or the ABS unit.
I have a 2006 4wd B4000, and I just started converting the rear of my truck from shoes to discs with the north race cars disc conversion kit. I went with the v6/gt rear calipers (I had no reason to want the cobra's) I've removed the axles and swapped over the new brackets and I have them in position just for a test fit before I take everything back apart for painting.
How is everyone taking care of the parking brake on this swap? Is there an easy way or something available so I don't need to make a completely new cable setup from scratch? The kit came with a pair of parking brake cables, but it is a mustang setup and on a mustang all of the parking brake cabling comes down the center of the vehicle (near the driveshaft) not way down the drivers side like on our trucks.
Yes, easiest thing to do is get some round tubing that has an ID big enough to slide over some of the spring on the end of your factory cable, but an OD small enough to be stopped by the part of the cable that originally latched into the backing plate. Cut them to fit and start long and go shorter to give yourself enough engagement with the pedal and still not drag when it's released.
08-31-2020
