Hey guys, I'm new as a member here and glad to find this place.

I'm redoing the front end of my '98 4x4.

I found out a short time ago that my 4x4 was no longer working. A quick inspection showed a cracked vac line. So since then I have just been holding out until I had time to tear into it.

Well lastnight my wife came home and said the brakes had started scrubbing. So I figured time to tear into it.

Well today I did just that. I started by shaking the tire real good before lifting it... been worried about the bearings considering the break in the lines. Well, there was play in both sides....

Think the bearings are just loose and need tightening?
Or do you think they are gone and need replacing?
(There is no noise)

Next I went to remove the brakes. Good lord!!! I broke everything 3/8" drive I had. I had to go buy a good 3/4" socked for my 1/2" drive... then turn the wheel and put a long pipe on it to break the bolts loose.

Well, I get the caliper off and find the source of the scrub. The left front OUTER pad is worn at about 1/8" angle and the backplate at the front of the pad is exposed.

But the interesting part is that was the OUTER pad... and the INNER pad was hardly worn at all.
Bad caliper or stuck caliper?
None of my other vehicles have ever done this.

So I stopped there on the brakes and went ahead on the 4x4 hubs to see how far I could get. Looks like I need a pair of some sort of snap ring pliers because I'm stuck at that point.

I've never been into these before. So what all has to come off to get everything out?

Do the lockers come on out after the snap ring or is there more to do? Like rotors have to come off, etc, etc... I don't want to be working in circles.

Bottom line is I want to fix my brakes back right (ABS and all), and I want to replace these auto hubs with the Warn manual hubs.... and tighten or replace the wheel bearings if needed.

So I could use to hear from someone who has done the whole 9 before for in depth detail. Meanwhile I will keep reading through the sticky thread on hub replacement.

Thanks.

calipers could be sticking, but the wheel bearings could also be worn, so, check both, grease both, tighten both. if the bearings look worn when you remove them, replace them.

Well, after some more staring and head scratching over the caliper, something occurred to me. But I thought no at first....

Well, then when it came time to try to push the piston back in just to see... well it was a no go... it wouldn't push in... open the bleeder valve, still no go... remove it entirely and put it on the bench, still no go with a C-clamp.

Turns out that what occurred to me did turn out to be the truth. Recall that the pads were not only wearing uneven with each other, but also on an angle on each pad itself. As the pads started to wear down further and the piston started to extend further, what happened was... Due to the angular wear of the pads, the piston got 'cocked' and after it extended out so far, this caused the piston to jam. Therefore the piston was able to continue to extend out for braking, but could not retract back properly, nor could it be squeezed back.

In the end, what it took was taking a brass tap rod and hammer and tapping it on the one side. Then the piston went right in like nobodies business... So I was able to re-use it and did so for reasons I'll explain in a bit.

The opposite side did not have the same issues, but did have equal angular pad wear.

In the end, I just replaced the pads with Bendix pads and called it a day.

The reason is my plan. The plan is that I will monitor pad wear over time on the original equipment to rule out the previous pads as the blame.

If I see angular wear on the new pads start to develop, then I will have to start hunting down the source of the problem.

But, I do plan to totally replace everything with new stuff at the next pad service. New calipers, rotors and pads. I just didn't want to possibly hide some other problem by going all-new now.

Like I said in the previous post, I called it a day after the brakes.

However, in the beginning, I did remove the outer part of the 4x4 hub. That was pretty much it because I got stalled by the snap ring because I can't find my pliers for that.

My question is, once that snap ring is removed, what other steps are involved to remove everything from in there?

I'm trying to judge the complexity, amount of time needed and tools needed to complete the job.

think it's just the snap ring and the 6 outer bolts to get just the locking hub off, but it's been so long i'm not 100% sure. then, if you wanted to try the wheel bearings, you will need some sort of spaner wrench or hub socket/spindle nut socket. if you buy one for a fullsize Bronco/F-150 dana 44 and break 2 teeth off (since the Kia nut has only 2 slots), it will work, that's what i used forever. may have to file the teeth a tiny bit narrower, too.

Seems to me the reason for the bad wear on the pads was caused by the loose front bearings = if the bearing are loose this will make the rotor to sit inwards at the top, thus creating the sideways cut to the pads. A common problem on these rigs. At 1,500 miles I had to tighten the bearings on the front, not only was I installing the 31" Boggers - I heard a klunk on bumps that didn't seem right. Loose bearings was the case for the clunk.