Accident Caused Some Problems

[Josh C.]

Last weekend we were coming down a mountain road (Big Bear Route 38) in the truck, my daughter wanted to get a picture of the sunset so I pulled over into one of the side of the road viewing area, I tried to slow down (probably going about 35-40mph) and I had about 10% brakes and wasn't slowing down fast enough. The brakes were really squishy. I pushed in the e-brake but that didnt help much, so I aimed it at the railing at an angle, threw it into park at the last second and hit the railing pretty hard, but it stopped us. Everyone was ok, just shook up. I thought about pulling back into traffic but there were a lot of cars and going down hill with no brakes was a scary thought too.
I jumped out to survey damage, only my right right tire hit the railing because of the body lift but it snapped the knuckle in half, blew out both ball joints, and bent the sway bar end link. The left rear brake was smoking and smelled. We were towed home. The next morning I pulled the tires off the back and it looks like the left rear brakes had locked up maybe? the pads were down to nothing, the rotor was badly grooved and the e-brake shoes were all broken up. The rear right side brakes looked fine. None of the 4 calipers or any lines were leaking fluid.

I repaired everything today; all new parts for the front right and new shoes, pads and rotors for the rear, along with new brake fluid and system bleed. I still need to have it aligned. I took it for a test drive and the brakes felt fine. But I did notice a few things

So my questions:

? any idea on what happened with the brakes? Ive never had any type of brake problems before and change the brakes pretty regularly.

? The distance between the front and rear right side tires is 1" closer than the distance of the left side tires, will the alignment fix that? I've never measured them before

? I have no spedometer reading anymore. I'm sure something was knocked loose after the impact. Where should I start to look? I'm nopt familiar with the speedo system on this truck. My old ranger is just the gear and cable but I think this is an electronic system?

Thanks in advance

 

[Rick]

Either the left brake locked up a long time ago and was wearing itself to death, or that brake was the only one working and it was doing the job for for the rest of the system. I actually had that happen to me. Weirdest thing was the truck stopped straight even though only one brake was doing the majority of the work. I found the problem when trying to stop on a wet road. One brake locked up and I just started skidding. That was on an old F250.

Check this post about the 1998 speed sensor:

Cruise control works, but not ideally.

As the title suggests, my cruise control works, but not perfectly. When it set the cruise control, it actually drops about 3mph, then holds the speed. If I press the accelerate button, it actually drops my speed by another 2mph. If I press the brake to cancel the cruise control, then press...

www.explorerforum.com

 

[J_C]

Glad that you and your daughter are okay!

My best guess is that you had the left rear brake lock up or at least drag, had (old?) brake fluid with too much moisture in it and boiled to vapor, this causing loss of braking.

IDK about your alignment, would want it on a lift to see if there's any control arm or even frame damage. 1" seems like a lot but I could be wrong.

Speedometer in '98 has a sensor on the rear differential, going to the ABS control module attached to the ABS pump under the hood. It sends a VSS signal to the PCM on C2008 pin 11 (instrument-cluster-instrument-cluster-circuit-2-of-2.pdf), and the dash cluster on C287 pin 1 (instrument-cluster-instrument-cluster-circuit-1-of-2.pdf). Wiring diagrams including these two PDF files and for ABS, are linked below in my sig.

Is the ABS or check engine light on? If so then I might scan for set codes, and check the ABS module fuse. I'd check all wiring and connectors for continuity and no shorts to ground.