Front wheel dragging after short drive

[forestrytodd]

So I'm stumped. When I purchased my spider recently the PO had don't tons of work to it to put it into great shape, thus the reason I chose this one. he had completely rebuilt the entire front suspension (along with many other things). When I bought the car the brakes were dragging in the front because the calipers were installed dry. Got hose greased up and what a difference. Now here is my problem.

When I drive the car for 20-30 min the right front wheel gets so tight it becomes hard to spin but when it's cool, there is no problem. I've thought it was in the brakes since the peddle gets very short when this happens. After reading many posts about the brakes, I've redone the brakes again. New hoses, bled, and greased up. Works great cold, pulls hard when hot.

I'm thinking that the bearing may be over tightened slightly causing this issue and I'm going to redo that but is there something else I should be looking at?

[DieselSpider]

If the brake booster was not adjusted properly when the new master cylinder was installed this can happen.

If the calipers were not greased and left dry for an extended period of time chances are that there was rust build up that needed to be removed before they were greased.

Also if the calipers and rotors got hot enough to cause the brakes to lock up then the front wheel bearings needed to be cleaned and repacked with fresh grease.

[kmead]

The caliper isn’t releasing. First check that the caliper does move on the sliders. Then I would start by replacing the rubber hose to the caliper, sometimes the inner of the hose can collapse and hold pressure in the caliper preventing it from releasing. After that I would rebuild the caliper.

I wouldn’t fool with the master cylinder and brake booster until you verified that the offending corner was working as intended.

[forestrytodd]

I did clean all the rust off the brackets and calipers and polished the sliders before greasing them up. The lines are new and I'm thinking it has nothing to do with the booster or master since it's only happening on one corner.

If you drive the car short distances the brakes work fine. 5 min drive and park, no issues. Even a 10 min drive at lower speeds with stop and go poses no issues that I can feel in the pedal.

If I drive the car hard or if I take a 20 min drive that's when I feel the issue. That's why I'm leaning toward the wheel bearing.

[kilrwail]

Try driving the car as hard as you can on a twisty road without using the brakes at all. If the wheel gets tight that should point definitely to the bearing.

[DieselSpider]

You would feel it when you spin the wheel hub when the brakes are released if the wheel bearing was tight. When you remove the cap to inspect inside is it dry and burnt inside or just nice fresh clean grease? If it is the wheel bearings not getting their annual greasing (12,500 miles) then its time to repack them and replace the seals however if they are binding you may have already scored the spindles badly enough that they will also need replacing.

[kmead]

A wheel bearing is going to create other problems and will create a distinct growling noise under way and will feel gravelly as you rotate the tire. It will behave similarly at all times, not start to not work properly after a few miles.

If you have verified the function of the caliper relative to its mounting, there are really only two possibilities: the caliper piston is binding or freezing up in the bore which is keeping it from retracting when you release the pedal or the hose is collapsing and keeping pressure in the caliper preventing the piston from retracting when you release the pedal.

I would start at the cheapest part first, the hose, and go from there. If you hoses are older than 5-10 years old they could easily be failing.

[124ADDHE]

I would pop the caliper and press the brake a few times and then use a c clamp to drive the brake piston back in, ensuring free movement.