Driving on the highway to get to my favorite 24-hour store, man this thing is pulling left pretty bad. Guess I gotta check tire pressure. I'll get to that tomorrow. Go up a slight grade...

hey this thing has no power at all in 5th gear! Starting to freak out now, thinking I blew another engine. Ges back downhill and I downshift... no, seems to have OK power, hmm. Must just be a low tire.

Happen to notice that the car no longer will roll at a stoplight. Tire would have to be darn near flat for that. I better take a look in the parking lot.

I park the car... hmm, what's that smell? Reminds me of the time I left the handbrake on in the Subaru and I cooked the front pads. I notice bluish smoke curling up from the left front wheelwell. I get out and look.

Ever see a glowing rotor before? I get my stuff and drive home slowly, on surface streets. Guess I have a siezed caliper to deal with in the morning... I'm pretty sure it's just the slide, it was giving be problems before.

 

Same thing happened on my 85, left front caliper locked up. Rebuild kit was cheap, but the rotor I trashed wasnt

Good luck man, and nothing smells as good as smokin' brakes or a clutch

 

I was plagued by an intermittent problem like that a few years ago.

 

A similar thing happened to my 85 GS after I bought it. It always seemed like it was out of alignment and when I hit the brakes, it aggressively pulled to the left. It also made a very bad smell, along with blue smoke. However, after driving it for a while, everything went back to normal. I've since looked at the rotors and they look to be in good shape for their age (original, never had them ground or machined). Anyway, this seems like a common problem and I'm sure that a rebuild kit would do the trick .

 

It is very common when doing brakes to push the caliper piston back in and put on the new brakes. After a while the crud that was left on the inside of the cylinder will cause a failure. Unless I'm replacing pads very frequently on a vehicle (read this
'daughter's hard driving") I try to at least do a complete fluid change when working over the brakes.

Just my .02 cents

Digger

 

I've had to replace all four of my calipers in the last 7 years.

 

digger: a few months ago, I was removing the left front strut, which requires removing the caliper. I had to use prybars to flip the caliper up and and air hammer to get the caliper off of the upper slide. I cleaned it all up and lubed the snot out of it, but I still had to hammer the caliper back on the slide! I was planning on replacing the front calipers but shortly afterwards I became unemployed, thus no new calipers. I had no problems except for a pull to the right when braking, until just recently. But it always did have that pull tothe right... the right side strut rod bushings are toasted and the alignment changes a lot when you apply the brakes. Now it's just moreso...

Sheesh it was almost 70 degrees today and I was laid up with a migraine... Again... Still haven't got to the brakes yet.

 

Bummer deal peejay about jod stuff making you have to wait to do something until it gets torn up. What do you think is making it bind? It doesn't sound like the piston is stuck. Usually a hung slider will wear out one pad rapidly and the other will look pretty fresh. I hope you get to feeling better.

 

I had to brake hard a couple days ago, that probably "set" the caliper hard against the rotor. Since it's binding up so bad, the caliper can't move away from the rotor. I guess I got away with the bad slide so far because I never really apply the brakes hard when driving.

Believe me sliezed slides can do all sorts of nasty things

It's supposed to be 63 degrees tomorrow, and 36 degrees and snowing the next day. (Gotta love Cleveland weather) Sheez no wonder it felt hot in the house, it WAS. That could be the cause of the migraines, it doesn't take much to set them off

 

*snifle, snifle*
What's that I smell? BURNT RICE!!!!
lol LATERZ