I just did the front brakes on my truck 09 2wd with (60,000 miles) because the brakes were sounding horrible and the steering wheel was shaking while braking. Basically everything was a nightmare. One pad had a shim broken off and bent into the caliper, one pad was just stuck in the slide, and both rotors had pitting all over the back side.

Anyway I replaced the rotors, wheel bearings, pads, caliper pins, boots, bolts, rattle clips etc etc etc. Checked both calipers and they were functioning fine so those were the only thing I didn't replace. Everything was cleaned thoroughly and assembled with high quality silcone/ceramic grease on all the contact points. The brakes work 100 times better, nice smooth pedal with no more vibration and plenty of stopping power. However they still freaking squeal! Its much better than before but they still squeal at the very end of a stop or when braking somewhat hard.

I even pulled them back apart today to check for any issues and everything is perfectly fine. Any ideas what gives!?!?! Just bad pads? Some weird ranger issue? Ive done plenty of brake jobs before with no squeals.

heres a pic of the original rotors. No idea who did the last brake job or if this was all original.

 

"Long-Life" brake pads squeal, harder material, not a good investment, lol.

Squealing with brand new pads can just be that the pads need to be flattened to the rotor, only lasts for a few weeks.

If you reuse rotors but change brake pad type, i.e. metallic, semi-metallic or ceramic, then they will squeal until pads and rotors wear down a bit, last pad type is worn off

Pads can "chatter" which can be heard as a squeal, use that orange Disc Brake Quiet on the back of the pads to stop them moving against metal of the caliper and piston