Better quality reman calipers?

After much testing and replacing parts, I'm forced to come to the conclusion that the reman caliper I've got put on the '96 F250 is bad. At this point I've replaced the entire front brake system from master cylinder to brake pads, including all the hard lines. The passenger side brake drags. Not enough to overheat the wheel, but enough to cause a come-and go pull in the steerign that is eating up the tire on that side, and enough that there's a major difference in the free rotation when the truck's jacked up.

I finally got down to the point this weekend that it has to be either the caliper holding too much pressure, or something to do with the rotors which I had not changed or turned (because they look fine.) Everything else in the brakes is new. Once you back the pads off, the hubs spin freely and the same on both sides. This weekend I swapped the rotors side to side. I figure if the pull changed sides, rotor. If it stayed right, caliper. It stayed right.

Now here's the thing. I've replaced BOTH calipers with remans from Advance (Wearever brand.) TWICE. They gave me the exact same pull behavior. Because of this I think it's not a "bad caliper" problem, but something about the rebuild spec that's not right. The brakes run a single line off the MC to the left wheel well. There's a block that tees off the rubber line to the left wheel and a hard line to the right wheel well where it connects to the rubber line. Because of this there's a big difference in line length between the two, even though they're on the same circuit. The only thing I can figure is that the reman guys are using sub-par piston seals that have enough retraction force to work on the driver side's short line, but not on the passenger side's long line. The seals are the only retracting force on the pistons, right?

At any rate, I need to find a higher quality replacement caliper for the passenger side. As far as I can find no one offers new calipers anymore so reman is my only option. So who has a better quality reman? Or at least, does anyone know who supplies the Wearever remans, and who else uses the same reman house? If I can't find "better" maybe I can at least find "different."

Are the mounting points for the caliper bent so it doesn't center on that rotor? Are the pads wearing evenly?

I'm chasing the same issue on my Excursion. Two or more years ago I had a dragging rear passenger caliper, and so I replaced the whole mess - loaded calipers, rotors, pads, etc. Now I am getting a drag from that corner again. I tried replacing the flex line but that didn't fix it.

Now I'm not sure how similar your OBS brakes are, but Superduty's have sliding pins on all the caliper/brackets. Have you tried just lubing up the slides with a high-quality brake grease?

One thing to check is if the master cyl. is releasing all of the pressure in the lines when you release the brakes. Pump up the brakes and then release them and then crack each bleeder to see what you get. More than a dribble means that you have some residual pressure in the lines. Pull the master and adjust the push rod inside the booster.

All mounting brackets have been replaced. All slide pins are well lubed. Pads are wearing evenly. Hell the pads aren't really even wearing noticeably faster on the dragging side. when you actually step on the brakes it stops well and runs straight. It's not dragging much, just enough to eat the most of the outside edge tread off a tire over 5k miles.

As I understand it the SD system is pretty different. I've got rear drums and rear-only antilock. I know the SD system can be retrofitted to the OBS trucks as an upgrade but it takes a fair amount of parts.

This may be a lot of work to just diagnose, but you could switch calipers and see if the problem follows. Bleeding would be a little difficult as the bleeders are arranged to be on the top when installed on the correct side but you could bleed them with the calipers unbolted and turned so bleeders are facing up.

Back to the original question (I think) ... I put Stoptech remain calipers (and their pads) on my S10, bought through RockAuto (using the forum posted discount code) and they work great. Looked to be high quality work, reportedly done in the US of A. That combo of parts was at least partially responsible for me not center-punching a suicidal deer on the way to work Thursday morning last week.

jfryjfry wrote: This may be a lot of work to just diagnose, but you could switch calipers and see if the problem follows. Bleeding would be a little difficult as the bleeders are arranged to be on the top when installed on the correct side but you could bleed them with the calipers unbolted and turned so bleeders are facing up.

I thought about this but the rubber hoses won't reach.