For about a year now my brakes have felt like they are dragging, or the vehicle just feels sluggish overall. Also when braking the brakes pulsate similar to ABS but different.

1999 Chevy blazer 4x4, 200k
new rotors, calipers, pads, last year, also new wheel bearings (somewhat suspect the nut may be torqued too tight)

I raised the front of the truck, took off both wheels, it seems as though the brake pads were engaged on the rotors, but i hear that these brakes don't have a mechanical retract, that the pads just come off the rotor while driving from vibration?
Should i be able to easily turn the hub?, when no brakes are applied at the pedal, it seems quite difficult to spin the hubs.

I believe i also replaced the brake lines at the wheels at the same time.

 

Did you grease the caliper pins? Do you smell brakes? Are the wheels hot to the touch? You should be able to spin the fronts fairly easily.

 

^^^ double check the caliper pins...sounds like they are jamming up on you.
also look up the torque specs...they are on here if you search..or google for your year of blazer

 

easy way to tell is park on a verrrrrrry slight hill and put it in neutral the car should start to roll really slow. or just put it in neutral while driving slow and see how it stops. i see a ton of fullsize chevys where the rear pads rot to the slides and either dont work or lock up against the rotors... s10s i do see occasionally but not as much

 

My thought was a possible wheel speed sensor. My 98 feels like it is pulling to one side. I have an ABS light that goes on & off. Sometimes it pulsates. Just a thought

 

same sort of problem. i smell burning brakes and they are really soft. rotors and pads looks good fluid seems fine. how do u grease or check the torque specs?

 

I'm going to look at them again today. Replace anything that I think looks like its an issue. I'm done with pulsing brakes I can't take it! The rotors were fine before, hopefully they still are!

 

more than likely if the caliper pins were siezed the rotors will be warp. the blazers had issues with the rear caliper pins siezing. saw it all the time when working at the stealership. best thing to prevent this is every 10k pull the wheels, pull the pins, clean em, grease em, install and rotate your tires, torque and your good to go.

 

I've had pulsating brakes the last 2 weeks and ended up replacing all the rotors and pads since there were no obvious defects. On the back left the emergency brake pad fell out when I pulled the rotor and on the rear left on of the sliders were frozen. I don't really know which component was the culprit but there's no more pulsing. I also found a bad lower ball joint in the process but that nightmare is another story...