Everything brake related on the Dakota is a nightmare... Don't get me started on the lines and fittings hahaha.

How is the dust shield/plate on the front brakes? Mine had disintegrated and would rub on the back of the rotor although it was more of a screeching sound.

 

All good points, I will give the slider pins a new greasing, check dust shields and see if the pads are stuck in a metal groove.
Light snow here today and the project isn't worth moving cars around to get it in the garage, so it will be a few days. It does drive fine, so if the snow piles up I can still drive it.


Wish it made the noise all the time would make this much easier to trouble shoot.

 

Ok, so a little update.
Today had some time, so I figured i'd tackle this noise, again.


Decided to do new brake hoses since mine are rusted to hell and I was going to do the Pside caliper again.
As the story usually goes, 15 minutes worth of work turns into hours. Of course the fitting on the Pside is seized to the hard line, so I had to cut flare and add a few inches of line since the bend is was too beat up to stay in the flaring tool vice.


None of that helped directly, although after a test drive I heard a worse sound. Come back, jack it up, spin the wheel and I can see bright metal chips falling. Which led me to what I think was the real problem, the brake pads..
There is a little tension arm on the outside of the pads, well it was pushing the pad up and in this case caused the ear of the pad to hit the wheel. Fixed that side, now the sound only persisted on the Drivers side, jacked it up, turned the wheel, felt like it was under tension, bend that tension arm up and suddenly the pads were hanging up much less.


BTW, helps too when working on the worst designed brakes ever, to put the lug nuts back on with just the rotor, without them the hub always spun easy, put them on, much harder.


Now, one last issue, you know because you fix one thing break another, the lower pin on the Pside which is oversized already, stripped again. Do I need a new spindle to fix this? It stays in, but only gets so snug.


Thanks for the help. Hope the noise is at least fixed, although more than once I thought it was, but it wasn't.

 

did you ever get that hub assembly/bearing changed ?
i just swapped one out on my Dakota , made it half way home from Illinois and stopped near Chattanooga Tn. , my nephew's.

May be why the 'tech' guy was having a hard time getting me good numbers at the alignment before i left.

$105 out the door at O'reilly.
i am assuming you have the same part. I did notice the little dust shield that should protect the back bearing side was rusted out making it worthless. so i fit in a half moon shape out of alum. can also a large socket size 1" plus is needed... we used a pipe wrench , hydr. jack helps, jack stands always. it took a couple hours+