Took the wife and sister-in-law to the sonic this evening, and when we got there the left front brake was hot; it's 9 miles to the sonic from the house. Not glowing hot, but you could smell it and it was starting to pull the steering wheel to the left a little. We sat there and ate for about 30-35 minutes and when we got on the road to head back to the house it was dragging bad enough I pulled back into the parking lot to deal with it. LOL, that's when I discovered I had forgot to put the 4 way tire tool back in the jeep the other day, as well as realized the stock tool will not fit the new wheel lugs. So I had to resort to opening the bleed port and forcing the caliper and pads off the rotor. I then took the back roads home with out touching the brakes. In the morning I'll tear into it and see if the caliper is froze up or just rusty slides. Do any of you guys have any suggestions as to what I should look for? Thanks for letting me pick you guys brain............

never looked at the brakes on a yj before but i believe there floating calipers? id make sure the floating pins were lubed up and slide well, then id make sure the contact points on the caliper were there brakepads rest are well lubed too

Yeah, roger that, I was also thinking the brake hoses may be stock too; that puts them at around 16 years old and the hose may be corroded shut with crud.

could be, time for some nice new stainless steel ones, even if it wasnt that then atleast they'll look good

I got loaded calipers on mine after having same prob.

Howdy Waskum You can put all new rotors with rebuilt calipers and pads on that ride for right around 100 bucks. Instead of messing with it I'd just put all new on there and be done with it.
Big Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

I tore into it this morning and the only thing I really came up with was the caliper/pad slides were pretty corroded and dirty. I pulled the caliper and found it was not binding or froze up, so I cleaned it up and flushed the brake fluid. I pulled the brake hose and hard line up to the proportioning valve and found nothing corroded closed or kinked; both the hose and hard line was free flowing. I cleaned and lubed up the caliper/pad slides, reinstalled everything then flushed and bled the system. Took it for a long drive afterwards and no problems; guess it was just the corroded slides. And yes Jim, you are right, if it comes back I'll be installing new calipers on it.

Front brakes dragging problem returned. I have been so busy in the oil fields that I haven't had much time to mess with it, but today I replaced both front hoses and bled the system. Took it for a spin and with in about ten miles they were dragging again.........so, on my next day off I guess I'll go ahead and replace both front calipers. Running out of bullets to shoot myself in the foot with.........

John I never had dragging pads that was NOT the calipers.
Big Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

It's very likely the brake calipers. The only other thing I could think of would be severely warped rotors, but if it were the rotars that were warped that bad, you'd feel a rather severe pulsing when you applied the brake at anything over 20 mph.