Adjusting Brake Booster

[SupaSwope]

Long story short. I redid the entire braking system. Rotors,Pads, Fluid Flush, Master Cylinder. But my pedal was still soft. So I took it to a shop that was recommended and they bled the lines. Wasn't air. Said it was the master cylinder. So I replaced it again. Wasn't the master cylinder.

I ended up finding out from the shop owner and by looking online that Ford has soft brake pedels on a lot if not most of their models. (Don't know if this is completely true, just from what I read online and the shop owner told me) He basicly told me that was as good as it gets to stock, and they were about as good as his brand new F150. It gave me piece of mind but I wasn't happy with it...

So I used google. Searched up ford soft brake pedal, and found some f150 forms talking about the same issue.
A couple of people talked about adjusting the brake booster and how to do it. So me wanting more from my truck went outside for about an hour and a half talking the master cylinder off and on and adjusting the booster then test driving. I probably did this at least 20+ times to get it right.

Now My brake pedal does what it should.(in my mind) It is nice and firm as it should be. and a slight pressure starts to stop the vehicle with 1-2 inches giving you the full stopping power. This is with brand new rotors and practically new pads(maybe a few hundred miles in).

Has else done this on the explorer form? I only sall adjusting parking brake cable/lever. Wanted to help someone else out if they wanted better feeling with their brakes.

 

[CDW6212R]

Well done at going through the brakes and keeping at it. The booster usually shouldn't need any adjusting of that small "piston" to MC part. But replacing the MC or booster are possibilities for that issue. What people say is to remove that "piston" carefully and don't turn the adjustment nut, install it back in that way.

I read the spongy pedal and immediately wondered of air got into the ABS module. If the lines get opened and brake fluid is allowed to run out a lot, often air will get to the ABS, and that is hard to remove. Bleeding normally doesn't move any fluid through the ABS, so anything in it remains. There is a special ABS tool to make the module cycle(open the valves), which during bleeding will let fluid go through the ABS.

So if you are satisfied with your brakes now, enjoy them and they should be like that for years. Any mushy pedal now would suggest air in the ABS, which can be displaced over tons of driving, say 20k miles(air spreads out and can be bled once out of the ABS module internals).

I had air in my 95 Crown Vic ABS, from installing the whole system from scratch(used parts). I didn't have the ABS tool to bleed it, but it stopped well enough to live with. After a long while I slowly noticed the brakes feeling firmer. I bled them about four times in a year after the ABS install, and it was slightly better each time(barely any noticeable air bubbles of any kind). I found that tool on eBay years later, and haven't needed to even try it yet.

Again, good work.

 

[SupaSwope]

The tool your talking about is the NGS right? Would it be worth to pick one up? This definitely isn't going this wont be my last gen 2 explorer. Next project after this is a 4WD model. But that's far ahead. anyways.

What tool did you get off ebay?

Edit; Thank you though, This is my first vehicle I have ever started to work on and its a awesome feeling learning and fixing it as I go. Love the community here as well.

 

[CDW6212R]

This is a great time to work with these Explorers. They are very reasonable to buy anything for them, and there are still lots of them to choose from. Plan to hunt the obsolete parts now/fast, for anything you will plan on keeping for a long time.

The tool I got isn't the NGS or any full service Ford dealer diagnostic tool. It was just a smaller device made for the ABS bleeding, I think it may be an aftermarket thing. It's been about 10 years since I got it, and it'd take a long while to find it if I needed it. I'm older and have lost(stored) a bunch of things.

Welcome again, and enjoy your projects, and share them here.