Mark wrote:

> A while back I posted looking for recommendations for good brake rotors due
> to my van's warped rotor syndrome. I wound up getting Raybestos PG + rotors
> and the quiet stop plus pads (ceramic) I also replaced the rear shoes and
> cylinders, flushed the system & put a combo kit on the rear axles. The van
> warped the new rotors while using the lightest braking while breaking in
> the rotors and pads. ( and yes, I use a snap on torque wrench religiously )
> The steering wheel now literally wags back and forth when stopping for
> lights. It just gets worse and worse just like all the other rotors I put
> on this thing. I know its the fronts because it stops smooth via parking
> brake. I'm thinking now that the hubs must some how be warped, causing
> rotors to go all the time. ( I should have resolved the brake issue when it
> was new, I already noticed warping on the drive home from the dealer with 24
> miles on the odometer. By the time I made my first complaint, I was over
> the 12k mark & the dealer said I was SOL, so I've lived with this prob for
> 87k now.
>
> Any ideas on what to look for ?

If that is the problem, it would have to be solved by replacing
whichever of the two front bearing/hub assemblies is bad. If you have
access to a dial indicator with a magnetic base, you could take the
front wheels off, tighten the lug nuts against the rotors evenly to hold
them flat against the hubs, and measure the lateral runout of the
rotors. Assuming the rotors themselves are true, any runout would be
due to the culprit bearing/hub. Otherwise (if making the measurement is
too much trouble), just replace both front hub/bearing assemblies.

I feel your pain - back in 1973, I bought my first brand new car - a
Mercury Capri with a hot-running German V-6. From day one, it shook on
braking, and not just a little bit, and cupped the tires. The Ford
dealers were no help. After a year of replacing this and that on the
brakes, I finally figured out by process of elimination that the only
thing left was the wheel hub. In those days, they used tapered roller
bearings, and apparently one of the pressed-in bearing seats was
slightly cocked in the hub, either due to an improrperly machined hub or
a piece of dirt behind it, because when I finally replaced the hubs, the
problem totally disappeared. A lot of frustration, money, and nasty
letters to Ford (you think customer service is bad now - it was way
worse back then) before I finally fixed it on my own.

One last thing to rule out before you replace the bearing/hub assys.:
Make sure that there's no rust or dirt between hub abd rotor and rotor
and wheel causing things to tilt (doesnt' take much). I know you said
the problem was there from day one, but you should at least check.
However, I suspect new bearings/hubs will fix it.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')


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