98 Jeep Cherokee left front brake sticking
 

Hello all,

Ok, I've been having a continued issue with my 98 Jeep Cherokee XJ. The left front brake keeps hanging up. I've replaced both calipers, both rotors, pads, both brake hoses, brake fluid and the power booster... it's all new. It still hangs up on me. Not too bad, but after heavy braking (downhill mountain roads) it starts to stick. It has the abs system, maybe it's that? There is no abs light on, just the annoying left front brake. Note: When I replaced the pads, the left front inner pad was smoked. The rest of the pads were decent, but there is an issue somewhere.

Thanks for any help.

Look at the "bridge" where the pads actually sit and slide (part of the knuckle). Are there big gouges? This will cause calipers to stick because they cannot move/slide easily. Refer to the circled and yellow highlighted areas.


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.che...f6733b3c56.jpg

98 Jeep Cherokee brakes
 

It never even occurred to me to check it. If it is gouged could I just take a file to it and try to smooth it out?

Copied from another post. I found my brakes to have this issue. Might be helpfull.

Also ... look for grooves worn in the rails on your steering knuckles. The rails are the things that the bottom your pads metal backing plates rest on. If the rails are grooved, it will prevent the pads from sliding in and out. It happened on my xj and I fixed it with a wire welder.

Here's a good writeup on the subject done by somebody else:

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/xj...rooves-924713/

That's exactly what I did, though I used an angle grinder (carefully). If it's really deep, you might need to fill it in first with a welder. A couple of millimeters is no big deal.

The right way to repair it would be to fill the gouges with weld and then level/smooth it back out. You want to keep the proper clearance for the pads to be able to slide but not move back and forth too much. You can file/smooth it down without welding but you will need shims for your pads. You may notice when you purchase new brake pads for our jeeps (good pads) that they will come with shims. That's to make up for the wear on the sliders. Too much wear will cause the pads to hang up/sticky caliper. You can purchase these shims separately from pads too