Just did the front wheel bearings on my 97 (new bearings and races, both sides), and now the front brakes calipers on both sides aren't working properly.
Ruling out the bearings themselves: rotors spin completely free with zero drag and zero play when the caliper is off. So it's not a bearing/preload issue.
For the actual brake problem, I never touched the pads and never disconnected the brake lines, just pulled each caliper off the rotor and zip tied them up to the coil with slack so nothing was pulling on the lines. Brakes worked completely fine before I started. Now both corners are barely stopping - calipers get noticeably hot after driving. I only drove the car 50 yards, the hubs/axles stay cool, so it's not a bearing drag thing, seems like the calipers themselves.
When I put the calipers back on I had to push the back pad on first then hold pressure on the front pad to get it to seat on both sides - wasn't easy but I didn't need pry bar/flat head or anything crazy to get them on.
Diagnostics so far:
1. Pedal is stiff with the engine off (I know that's normal, no vacuum assist) and softish with it running, still hard compared to when they were working.
2. Wiggled both caliper bodies by hand, neither moves at all, torqued to 90 ft lbs.
3. Had someone press and hold the pedal while I watched all 4 pistons on each caliper with the wheels off, engine running, truck in neutral - literally zero movement on any of them, both sides
4. Tried to manually compress the pistons with channel locks and a flathead on both calipers, could not get ANY movement, couldn't even pry a gap big enough to get the flathead in there
5. Haven't yet cracked the bleeders to see if fluid even moves.
What's throwing me off is the brakes worked perfectly fine the day before I touched it. No leaks anywhere, fluid isn't low. Seems weird for pistons on both sides to seize up at the same time from one reinstall, but I also can't find anything else that changed. Maybe corrosion that was already there but never had to move this much before created the stuck pistons.
Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.
Ruling out the bearings themselves: rotors spin completely free with zero drag and zero play when the caliper is off. So it's not a bearing/preload issue.
For the actual brake problem, I never touched the pads and never disconnected the brake lines, just pulled each caliper off the rotor and zip tied them up to the coil with slack so nothing was pulling on the lines. Brakes worked completely fine before I started. Now both corners are barely stopping - calipers get noticeably hot after driving. I only drove the car 50 yards, the hubs/axles stay cool, so it's not a bearing drag thing, seems like the calipers themselves.
When I put the calipers back on I had to push the back pad on first then hold pressure on the front pad to get it to seat on both sides - wasn't easy but I didn't need pry bar/flat head or anything crazy to get them on.
Diagnostics so far:
1. Pedal is stiff with the engine off (I know that's normal, no vacuum assist) and softish with it running, still hard compared to when they were working.
2. Wiggled both caliper bodies by hand, neither moves at all, torqued to 90 ft lbs.
3. Had someone press and hold the pedal while I watched all 4 pistons on each caliper with the wheels off, engine running, truck in neutral - literally zero movement on any of them, both sides
4. Tried to manually compress the pistons with channel locks and a flathead on both calipers, could not get ANY movement, couldn't even pry a gap big enough to get the flathead in there
5. Haven't yet cracked the bleeders to see if fluid even moves.
What's throwing me off is the brakes worked perfectly fine the day before I touched it. No leaks anywhere, fluid isn't low. Seems weird for pistons on both sides to seize up at the same time from one reinstall, but I also can't find anything else that changed. Maybe corrosion that was already there but never had to move this much before created the stuck pistons.
Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated.
