I just ripped my rear pads and both sets were worn at an angle. The pads both had wear at opposite corners. In other words, if you held a brakepad horizontally, the wearing surface is sloped a great deal. The thick part of the pad showed little wear while the other side had about 3mm left.

One pad was worn opposite the respective partner. So that, when put together, the backing plates were perfecly flat in respect to each other.

There was a teensy bit of play in the guide pin on both calipers, and neither slide or bolt was stuck.

Any ideas?

(exaggerated diagram of pads sandwiched together, out of the caliper, looking down at them)


|||-----|
|\\-----|
|-\\----|
|--\\---|
|---\\--|
|----\\-|
|-----|||

Had the same problem with my last car. One of the two spring clips that hold the pad in the caliper was broken causing the pad to drag on one end. The clips were only a few dollars for a set at NAPA. Also check your rotors since the pad was probably dragging on it while wearing at an angle.

Inside the caliper on the rear brakes there is a little screw head or rivet or something that sticks up and is supposed to go on the side of the pad - but it's possible to install the pads with one of the pads slightly overlapping that.

Mine were like that before too. It causes the brakes to drag, and causes a little bit of spongy feeling in the brakes too.

It's important to pay attention to that little doohickey when you're putting the new pads in, because it's easy to put them in wrong <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Just for the addition of general knowledge, and not particularly related to this application (haven't torn the brake system down on that type of truck) I'll share an experience I had with an old Mazda B2000 I had. I was using it to move back from Iowa one time and I knew the brakes were a bit squishy, but figured it would manage until I got home. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shame.gif" alt="" /> Coming up on stopped traffic on the highway, pedal went down and brakes did little to nothing. My mother (driving) ended up scooting down the median with the emergency brake locked up and passing about 4 cars. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> We got a round of applause, cleaned ourselves, and limped it the rest of the way home.

The culprit we found was one of the pins that the caliper slid on to compress the pads. During the previos winter it had seen sufficient high snow and salt that there had actually grown a rust ring which siezed one pin. The end result was it was torqueing my caliper in order to make contact with only about half the pad. Eventually we got into a high load situation and the caliper couldn't bend far enough to deliver stopping power. It was exciting. A simple fix, but could have sure messed up my world.

As I said, I don't think this applies particularly to your truck, but the conceptmay have some application.
$.02
James

Dude you have just described exactly what has been going on with my brakes. I was really lazy the last time the rear pads were changed and shortly after changing them out I heard the common brake noise. I thought it was odd, but wrote it off as just brake dust. I'll have to tear them apart before we go on vacation. Thanks for the tip though. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Eric said "Inside the caliper on the rear brakes there is a little screw head or rivet or something that sticks up and is supposed to go on the side of the pad - but it's possible to install the pads with one of the pads slightly overlapping that."

Where exactly do i find this, and what is it for/do. Is it on the piston? This is not clear to me.

I didn't really think much of it when I did my brakes, so I can't describe its location in much detail. I just noticed it, shrugged, fiddled with it till the pads were "right" and was done.

I'm pretty sure it's on the side opposite the piston.

Here's what i know - the pad will go in normally, and then it can either settle in slightly offset and be "wrong", or you can shift it with your hand and make it settle in all the way and be "right" ..

you can visually see when it's right or wrong because when it's wrong it won't look straight. The difference is very small but it's visible.

It's easy to get it wrong if you're not paying close attention though.

Just got done with a brake job on my Trooper - I had one set of pads worn this way. It was VERY obvious.

There's a post that runs through the top of the caliper assy. The post is mounted on the removable bracket that holds the caliper. The entire caliper rotates on this post once you've removed the restraining bolt at the bottom. This post also more or less aligns the entire caliper assembly.

Mine was bent up a few degrees. It was noticable - so much so that when I went to rotate the assy down on the new pads, it was visibly out of alignment with the disk & pads.

So I gave it a couple of strategically placed whacks with a hammer (after removing the caliper assy) to get it back in line. Once I'd bent it down a couple of degrees, it fit perfectly.

You do want to be careful not to bend it too much or snap it off - that could get expensive. But I managed to fix this in about 30 seconds.

Had the same problem with my left rear wheel this winter but mine was bent enough to prevent the caliper from swinging into place with the new pads installed. The bracket couldn't be removed either. Had to replace the whole thing but considering its importance.....was happy to do it. I couldn't help wondering though.....how did I manage to bend the caliper pin but not damage anything else?