!!!help with brakes!!!

[Jayhova]

Hello to all that will view this and respond. PROBLEM, my Truck (03 HD) is jumping and shimmying like crazy when I have to apply the brakes come to a stop if I am doing over 45 m.p.h. (usually a stopping distance of over 50 ft) I changed the brakes and rotors this weekend and to my avail, it didn't make it any better. I have seen wheels out of balance cause this problem as well. If any of you have some insight on this...HOOK A BROTHA UP!!!

Peace and Blessings

[oki916]

You are already on track to see if the tire's need rebalancing...check to see if you lost a wheel weight also.

I would go back and re-tork all the rotors to make sure that you didn't mess up. When I changed my rotors out to the Rotor Pros, the last tork spec was in inch lbs, not ft lbs and I got a real bad shimmy coming from that wheel. Once it was re-torked, the shimmy went away...of course during breaking this happend as well.

By the way...how did you speaker box turn out??

[Jayhova]

I am going to retorque again, but the problem was there before I swapped out the rotors and pads...so???? Haven't even had a chance to get around to the speaker box yet Bro..I am in the military and I have been BUSY!!!!!!! Beyond busy...work, work and more work...I have some down time coming up here in a few weeks, so I am going to get some housework done and get my truck, to include the speaker box, squared away.

[oki916]

Before changing the rotors huh?? I would look for a lost wheel weight and definitely check to see if the tires are balanced...other than that, I am not too sure.

[mikelemoine]

Did you change all 4? I've seen the rear ones do that too, if they are really out of whack. The rears don't do much on easy braking, but your higher speed stops where you push the pedal harder will kick them in a little more and you'll feel a shimmy if they are out.

I've seen Pep Boys/Autozone rotors jump back out of spec right away from things like over tightening the lug nuts or not properly seasoning the rotors (jumping in and driving like a maniac without letting them heat/cool cycle and burn off the production oils). Sometimes you just get a bad rotor.

Late last year I had a shimmy problem and Rich at Rotorpros told me to jack the truck up and turn the rotors by hand and feel for tight spots, and also to look for uneven wear marks on them indicating the pad isn't riding even. I was able to diagnose a slightly bad rotor and have it turned and solved the problem.

In very rare cases I've seen tires that are separating cause a pronounced shimmy under braking since the rubber tread moves around under stress. This usually occurs moments before the tire pops and only after you've ignored the howling noise and vibration at highway speeds for a few months. Doubtful neglect is the issue since you are a member of an auto enthusiast club!

Other than that, check all of your ball joints, tie rods and other bushings under the truck. Anything loose might be changing your alignment during braking and cause some weird stuff to happen (and of course becomes dangerous).

Hope this helps get things back in shape for you! Be sure to post pics when you get the speaker box done, I'm too lazy to think up my own design!