Grinding...Brakes likely...Bearings possible?

[schultp]

I have my son's 1995 2wd XLT (3.0L, auto) for the week. Well, yesterday I slid on the wet/icy pavement and rear ended another driver at about 10-15 mph. Front bumper is bent downward. But, truck survived. Except, now a grinding that I know is the brakes (and heard prior to the accident) is now louder. I can make it more pronounced when I wiggle the steering a bit...particularly a little to the right. It is really pronounced when I take off from a red light after I have braked to a stop. This has me leaning toward the brakes sticking and getting worse after the emergency braking maneuver.

I definitely know I need to replace the brakes on this thing...probably on all 4 wheels. But, do you think the pronounced grind after locking up my brakes could also be the bearings? I am thinking that I probably ripped the small remaining amount of brake lining from the pads/shoes but I thought I'd get other opinions prior to tackling this project on Friday.

How hard is it to replace Ranger bearings anyway? I've done them on my Saturn and it wasn't too bad a job.

TIA,

Paul.

 

[MAKG]

If you're replacing brakes, clean and repack the bearings. EVERY time. This will give you a good look at them. They need to come out anyway to resurface or replace the rotors.

 

[Joshs93four-oh]

All of these symptoms are probably due to worn out brakes as you stated. As far as being able to irritate the grinding noise by steering side to side- This is another routine symptom of worn brake pads and it happens because when you steer side to side the weight transfer causes deflection in the bearings. In other words, any play in the bearings is being "exercised" causing the rotor to lean into the worn pads slightly on the swaying manuevers. I have had this symptom on almost all the cars that I have worked on, even ones with no perceptible play in the bearings. Of course, check the bearings for excessive play when you get the wheels off the ground by grabbing at 12 and 6 o'clock and rocking the wheel. Like MAKG said, always re-pack the bearings and install new seals but replace all 4 bearings and races if they are excessively loose. You may find that the rotors are de-laminated or rust pitted in which case you should replace them. I'm not speaking of surface rust, but pitting or rust coming off in sheets/layers. This will be more often the case on the backsides of the rotors. This is not caused by outside elements but faulty casting and impurities in the alloy that is very common. If new rotors are needed, new races will already be installed in the new rotors making the job even easier because you wont have to screw around with pounding them in out of the old rotors. Josh
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Trichome