I got new brakes and they dont grind. Cant hear a thing! I did not "bed them in" either like I do disc brakes.

I was putting the other one together today and thought his retainer might have come apart. I found one that had a little too wide hole and put it on the bottom.

The springs on this brake are really good. Just dust them off and they are shiny like new, they dont rust or anything. I think its a waste of money unless they are corroded or bent. (I found a cool hook at harbor freight last week that helps not to bend them!)

The more things you mention it sounds like we have identical vehicles. Our problems do not occur at exactly the same time but they are much the same.

I had that grinding noise you are speaking of in the rear of my truck. Even had my kids get out and listen while driving slowly down the street.

Took it in and sure enough it was the rear wheel bearing.

Hope that helps.

Maybe the rear wheel bearings are bad. Still it wouldnt cause it to violently shake when I hit the brakes all of the sudden since i changed them, would it?

What tipped me off to the wheel bearing, was a measurement of the play in the thrust direction, of the axle flange with the wheel/drum removed. The book says 0.7mm I came up with nearly 2mm.

Also when driving I could look over my shoulder and see the bed vibrating...

And I jacked up the wheel and spun it. It looked like the wheel is bent.

Well for sure the bed doesnt vibrate and the wheel doesnt look out of round b/c we did check for bad wheel bearings iirc.

Either way, its gonna be fixed soon. I talked to the head mechanic at my shop and he said he would have to drive it. I figure ill go aorund my block 5x and then up to the shop, by then, the brakes should be hot enough to vibrate again and we shall see.

If it only happens when you apply the brakes, most likely it's something to do with the rear brakes. You recently worked on them right? It seems to reason that something inside there is not in it's place. If the pads are not worn all the way down, metal to metal, then it would seem that something has come loose. Have you even pulled the drums to see whats making that terrible sound? Surely there is something wearing away in there. Hopefullly it will be obvious, and an easy fix for you. After all you've been through, you deserve it. Good luck.

Ya know, I had a hunch the rear pads glazed over. Even though I sanded them down by hand, I dont think I did a good enough job. They had previously been in out of round drums (stupid us forgot to check them) and glazed a bit in about 200 miles or so.

Took off the drums-what do ya know, shoes are shiny. Took 60 grit sandpaper and sanded them down really well. Everything else appeared to be fine, no leaks or outof place stuff, compared to the FSM.

Then I took a drive. At first the pads needed to settle it seems as they werent releasing right. You could slam them home, let off the they would kinda stick. However after about a 1/2 mile of on and off, it went away and the truck stopped great. No vibrating or grinding and I drove around 45mph max and stopped hard alot, no issues. But only time will tell..

Checked the fronts, fine too..

FWIW, NAPA has gotten into selling junk in a big way.

I did read your last post where you say you sanded down the shoes and things seem better. Glad that helped, I've done it myself. But the problem will likely come back. When it does, replace the shoes with something decent.

Turning drums and rotors is generally a bad idea. It's a short-term band-aid. When you do this not only do you make things thin but you make the metal thickness uneven, which tends to lead to interesting results of the unpleasant variety. I'd suggest replacing the drums with new ones.

Gotta jump in here Foxtrapper. Turning drums and rotors is a must if you are replacing pads / rotors. Your reply implies not to do so. Now if you meant only if the old pads / shoes were to be reused, you are right there unless there is a real distortion in the rotor / drum. Out of round is out of round and will give spongy brakes no matter what pads / shoes are used. If the rotors are vented style, not solid, then they are probably good for many turnings as long as the min thickness is not approached. Drums can be turned too, to nearly min thickness, especially if they are thicker, finned ones. One thing to look for on drums is the presence ( or lack of) welded on balancing weights. As drums are cast, they almost always have balancing weights welded on. These weights have been known to come off drums and cause all kinds of weird braking. Also, if the weight is pretty big, say bigger than a refrigerator magnet or two, chances are the drum is a poorly cast one and may be factory junk.

Anyway, old pads and shoes with little evidence of uneven wear, yeah, leave the rotor / shoe alone. If obvious uneven wear is there, something is wrong with the spring hardware or the caliper sliders / pad retainers or the rotor / drum itself.

The weights are all there on the drums. See, what happened was we replaced my rear shoes. At the time we forgot to check the drums for being out of round and I still had issues after driving maybe 50-100 miles we took it in again and cut the drums.

However at this point, I feel the shoes glazed over possibly and thus my problems.. I may have to replace them, I dont know.