Grinding in your front axle, etc...

["Jason and Maria Colavecchia" <jasoncolavecchia@domain.elided>]

To that poor guy having all that grinding occurring after hitting bumps and
stuff from your front axle...check your brake calipers!

6 months ago,  I decided to get my front end 'PROFESSIONALLY' aligned.   I
took it to an alignment place recommended to me by one of my buddies, and
they did an excellent job.  They also did an inspection for me and
recommended me to replace my front axle U joints and draglink ends...after
I looked at them myself, I concluded that it was more than a good idea,
since I already had a ride to work and stuff and really didn't have the
time to finish this job myself.  I got the parts for them (they admitted
ignorance in how to find them) and they did a quality job...so I thought..

I picked up the truck, and everything seemed fine until I was about 15
minutes from home.  Suddenly, any time I braked, i heard this awful
GRIIIINNNND, which seemed to continue for a bit after getting off the
brakes.  this also seemed to occur after hitting bumps for short
periods...It was happening from both front wheelsides, and I was mightily
peeved...

As soon as I got home,  I naturally had to crawl under and try to ascertain
what was happening...everything appeared normal to me, and there didn't
appear to be anything dragging or touching the hubs or brakes.  I called
the alignment place and talked it over with the mechanic...He was horrified
that I had discovered this problem, and urged me to bring it back as soon
as possible ( I have to admit, these guys were pretty nice and very
respectable, unlike most of the shops I have ever been to).  That night, I
spent a great deal of time thinking about this problem...to no avail...

I think this came to me in a dream......I woke up and suddenly realized
what the problem might be.  When 7 am rolled around, I drove the scout
(carefully, I will add) to the shop and asked the mechanic to take the
wheels off...We checked the calipers and, sure enough, there was a
PROBLEM!!!!!  I noticed right away that the top edge of my rotors had
bright areas of fresh metal exposed from some kind of scraping...the
calipers were so loose in their stirrups that you could almost remove them
without tools!!  

The cause of this situation was really not entirely the Mechanic's fault. 
On scout brakes, as well as Ford ones, there is a little clip of soft metal
which is shimmed under the rear slot where the caliper fits in...these, of
course, were missing...somehow they had fallen out and/or the mechanic had
misplaced/forgotten about them.  We quickly ordered a set and, in half an
hour, everything was OK again.

My point:....take off your front wheels, and check the calipers for
looseness...check to see if these small shims are in place between the
caliper and the bracket (right where the big allen key bolt is)
Check at the same time for unusual fresh scrapes along the top edge of the
rotors as well.  Those scrapes were from the inside of the caliper roof
hitting the rotor.  
That little metal clip/shim thing makes a BIG difference in how your brake
calipers sit on their brackets....

Oh yes..other reasons why Scouts are cooler and better than other vehicles:

1/  My son (almost 2 years old now) points at my Scout II and says,
"TRUCK!"  He then points to my 69 travelall and says, "OOLLD TRUCK!"  He
then points at my buddy's Nissan Pathfinder and says "CAR!"

2/  J@#P guys ALWAYS get jealous, and get embarassed when they are caught
looking at the Scout...

3/  It's music to my ears when I hear friends (or otherwise) get stung with
impossibly high repair bills that fixed nothing on their late-model
whatevers...