I experienced my 97 F150 (118,000 miles) steering pulling to the drivers side. Upon investigation, left front wheel very hot, extremely difficult to rotate wheel after raising wheel off ground. Inspected caliper and pads finding pads cracked, apparently from overheating. Replaced calipers, pads and hoses, bled system but not able to get any brake pedal. Upon bleeding, noticed some dark particles/material in the fluid being bled from the system. I flushed approximately 1 quart of fluid during the bleeding process. My first thought is that the master cylinder has failed. Any suggestions would be appreciated. (new rotors and ceramic pads were installed Dec 04,115,000 miles)

Thanks,
chuckstruck
97 F150, 5.4L Flareside

 

if you still have no pedal then look at the rest of the system

any bad lines?...lots of miles

bad hoses to the rear? what about the rear wheel cylinders?



did you adjust and bleed the rears also?

...zap!

 

I did bleed the rear brakes, no air, just dirty fluid. Rear lines are hard lines. While bleeding the system, front and rear, there appeared to be much less pressure than I've experienced when bleeding brake systems in the past. I did purchase a new master cylinder from local Ford dealer, $121 + tax. Master cylinder installed today but didn't have time to bleed. Will bleed system tomorrow, hopefully with positive results. Thanks for the reply.

chuckstruck

 

hoping to hear results...

 

Any more information on this one? I had the same problem with my 97 tonight. It started pulling to the left and I noticed the left front was really hot. I pulled the tire off but I am not sure if the caliper is frozen (I was able to release it by prying on it) or if it is something else.

Other than the soft pedal, did replacing the parts solve the drag problem?

Thanks!
Joe

 

After replacing both front calipers, both front hoses, caliper slide pins and master cylinder, pedal was still very soft as a matter of fact no pedal. Now comes the hard part, during the replacement of the calipers I inadvertly installed left caliper on right side and right caliper on left side which places the bleeder on the bottom not allowing me to completely bleed all of the air from the system. After changing the calipers back to their correct sides, system was bled, now brakes are good as new. The original problem with the drivers side brake dragging/sticking I believe was the brake hose internal failure. Not paying close attention to detail caused me many hours of headaches not to mention the $$$$. Make sure bleeder is always on top.

Chuck