I own a 1993 Dodge Dakota 4x4 V8 and I started to hear grinding when I would apply breaks. I took off the tire and discovered that the top of caliper is rubbing on the inside of rim and grease has leaked out of a tear in the CV joint boot. I plan to replace the entire axle/CV outer and inner joint.
Thank-you for any responses and help.

Sam

 

I would be checking into why the caliper is rubbing. Something probably bent or out of alignment. Maybe a mounting bolt came loose or fell out??
CV boots split and leak all the time the fix is to replace the boot and add grease. Why are you going to replace the CV joints and axle?

 

sounds like the front hub bearing went bad. When you jack it up is there slop in the wheel in/out?
but by your description the CV is toast too, just replacing that by itself won't help the wheel rubbing the caliper part of the problem. if you only replace the CV halfshaft without figuring out what is making the wheel lean/rub, the new CV will fail the same way, and soon.

 

 

 

I am having a very similar issue. 1993 Dakota 4x4 v8 - truck just hit 53k. The caliper on the passenger's side is scrapping against the inside of the rim constantly and pretty significantly (scrapping stops when the brakes are engaged) I thought the wheel was bent at first, but the same happens when I switch the front tires. I needed to change my idler arm and CV half shaft (torn boot) so I decided to replace the hub assembly as well. I also changed the Caliper pins since the torn CV boot sent grease flying up and into the boots/pins on the caliper. The scrapping is still there... Also wondering if a bad (or going bad) upper or lower ball joint could be the culprit? SRAC and I appreciate any comments and suggestions.

 

Is there evidence of contact on the caliper? How do the brake pads look? Getting down to the wear sensor?

 

Question is it rubbing on the top of the caliper? Also did you check if you have uneven tire wear? If the camber is off you might see tire wear kind of feathered or tilt to it, and be sure to check control arms and trailing arms in your suspension. I hope this helps with your issue.

I'm working on it right now and the tire is leaning quite a bit (negative camber) so it seems to be the bearing and I surmise that because of the problem it has made the CV joint fail. I've checked upper and lower ball joints and they have no play in them. I also discovered that the rotor was cracked all the way through and break pads were wore uneven. Once I get it put back together again I will let you know if my repair worked.
With mine the scrapping was much worse when breaks were engaged but continued to scrap even without breaking.

 

Yes there is a matching wear mark on the top of caliper and the pads worn uneven also found the rotor to be cracked through. but even though the pads were worn they still had lot of pad left and not even close to the wear sensor. I'll post more photos of rim and caliper.

 

Think I would check the guide pins for the caliper as well.