1st gen: bad brake prob

[Forder]

My 94' has a weird problem with the brakes and since I don't know much about'em, I need some help in diagnosing the prob. Whenever my truck is on slippery terrain such as mud or snow (both of which it sees a lot of) the brakes don't want to work properly at all. Whenever I try to brake anywhere from intermediate pressure to hard braking, my brake pedal will not go down and it kicks back a little bit while making a sound simular to something grinding. It's pretty bad whenever I need to brake immediately and I have absolutely zero braking effort coming from my brakes. At least it feels like it's not braking at all, it might be a little bit. It's already caused me to slide out of my drive and into the middle of the road, luckily no traffic was on it to hit me.

But I need to know what this problem is fast so I can fix it with the snow coming and all. We just had our 1st snow and while my 4x4 worked great, I need brakes the most in case something happens in front of me. Please help me with any info you can provide. Thanx a lot in advance to you all!

 

[bigred93explrer]

I have had a similar prob. Every once in a while when braking over bumpy surfaces my pedal qill kick back a little bit and it sounds almost like a spring kinda noise. That is the only problem I have. It still will brake and stop fine, just a lil kick back on the pedal.

 

[Forder]

Yeah, mine brakes fine and I can brake hard on normal road conditions and it'l stop right quick. But like yours, if I hit any moderate bumps, turn my wheel, or am on a slippery surface, it get kinda scary. One time I almost missed a turn-off so I braked firmly and turned off and my brake pedal just kicked back out on my and I lost my brakes almost completely. I had to hurry up and straighten my wheel so my brakes would work again and I almost went off the road and off a drop-off into a gulley, heh. I stopped right before it and had to back up to make the turn. I need this problem fixed ASAP.

 

[hermitrl]

Sounds like the antilock is kicking in to me. You could try pulling the fuse--I think it is under the hood in that fuse box. It may also be brake pads worn right down to metal? Also--in snow--sometimes the rear drum brakes wont adjust and you only have front brakes----I found this out long ago in a Tbird with fast idle stuck on---pushed me into a car 4 times before i thought to shut the engine off. Hope this helps.

 

[Forder]

I don't think it's the ABS from what I've expirienced the ABS to feel like cuz it's a bad, inconsistant grinding noise that feels very nasty, heh, it's kinda hard to describe. I just had my brake rotors and pads replaced almost a year ago and they still feel fine on dry pavement, I shouldn't have to mess with them, should I? Could it be a bad master cylinder or a kink in the brake lines or something?

 

[Con Seann3ry]

yeah...maybe the brake master cylinder isn't compressing as well as it should...but i'm a newb so I wouldn't listen to me.

 

[dgibson]

Mine does the same thing, it's only the ABS. The brakes are trying to pump at a certain tension, but when you hit the slippery or bumpy terrain, the tension is different on the tire. Just pump your brakes with your foot and you are fine. I have pretty much "mastered" this.

 

[Forder]

Well I try to pump my brakes when it does this and it won't let me, that's what's so crappy about it. It will not go down while it's making that noise no matter how much pressure I apply to the pedal. It's like the pedal is locked up and it wont budge.

 

[bikerboy4lif]

it is supposed to do that! otherwise the wheels would just lock up. If you want to aviod the abs from kicking in, just start breaking sooner and don't push as hard. I drive in snow and ice alot, and i push easy on the brake. The abs almost never kicks in. You won't stop any fast without abs on ice anyway, so it really isn't gonna help you if you pull the abs fuse.

 

[Forder]

So the ABS is supposed to keep you from pushing the brake pedal down? I think I could definitely stop faster without it if that's even what's making it do that. I still had plenty of grip when it forced me out into the middle of the road the other day. So where's the fuse exactly so I can pull it to see if that's what's making it do that?

 

[97BlackX5.0]

The ABS system is intended to pulsate hydraulic pressure to the brakes faster than a human can react to changing conditions.... It kinda works like this.... on a rear wheel abs equipped car there is a sensor on the top of the rear diff. This sensor determines vehicle spee and compares it with the speed the vehicle speed sensor is getting. If the two start to differentiate then the computer knows that the wheels are just sliding and not spinning... therefore it pulsates the brakes to let the wheels turn but also stop with whatever force they can.... this keeps the rear end from locking up and fishtailing around the front end.... now on vehicles with 4 wheel abs the concept is the same but it is for all 4 wheels....to allow steering on less than perfect surfaces alot of offroad enthusiasts dont like this feature because the quickest way to stop offroad is to build up a berm in front of the tire...... now this system can be confused if you hit bumps that confuse the sensors or the sensors are dirty or you are trying to brake while turning a sharp corner.....but in no way should the pedal not be going down...... you should be able to press as hard as you can on the pedal and it will still unlock the wheels if it deems it necessary. you will feel a pulsating in the pedal and hear a whirring/grinding sound from the abs valve opening and closing .... hope this helps somebody....

 

[Con Seann3ry]

yah...97black...that helped me at least, it makes sense now. Where is the fuse to disable it?

 

[Forder]

Well I took it into the shop yesterday and it turns out that both my rear drums were busted up pretty bad so I've had virtually no brakes in the rear for a while, heh. I guess that'd be a problem. I get it back today. I also got the new radius arm and bushings put in and I had to replace the bracket that the radius arm connects to on the passenger side because the old bent RA wore a big notch in the old bracket, heh. Well I guess it should ride a lot stiffer and it wont screech and clunk every time I hit some bumps now . Gonna run me a lil over $600 to have all that done at once though... not as bad as I thought but still pretty friggin expensive! Thanx all for helping me though