zeb bobble
New Member
- Joined
- May 20, 2025
- Messages
- 2
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- City, State
- olympia, wa
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1999 Explorer Sport XLT
Brake issue where peddle does not wish to return unless you pull it up with your toe.
Temporary fix last winter was to hook a bungee cord to the brake peddle & steering column to pull up the peddle until better weather allowed me to work on it.
I have a 1999 Explorer Sport XLT with 5 speed automatic. Drove me nuts figuring out what was wrong. Took into shop & they saw nothing wrong.
After a lot of investigation, it turns out the brake peddle pivot pin was almost rusted solid causing sever binding so when the peddle pushed down it would not return well & the friction fooled the Booster into thinking the brake was being depressed so the peddle would not go back up.
The peddle assembly took me 4 hours to remove because the 2 upper bolts fought me tooth & nail as they had rusted threads but I got it out eventually.Sure enough I could hardly move it by hand. It is designed as a non-repairable assembly. Being a non-repairable assembly, you cannot buy parts to fix it anywhere unless you desire a used peddle from bone yard which I did not desire.
Being stubborn once I got the peddle assembly out of the truck & in my hands.. I used a large socket I think 5/8" atop an anvil to support the bracket at the domed end of the pivot pin & drove out the pin deforming the side of the bracket bulging it outward until it released the hinge pin. See attached photo where I circled that domed end of the pin. (The bracket hole was drilled undersized by Ford, the pin has a groove at the domed end and I believe the bracket it had a factory made coned shape so once the pin was in place the factory flattened the cone shrinking the metal into the groove in the pin locking it in place.) Once I expanded the bracket to release the lock from the pin, I used a steel rod to punch out the pivot pin the reminder of the way.
I then bought a 1/2" x 6" grade 8 bolt along with a nylon locking nut as well as 2 flanged ball bearing assemblies 1/2" ID x 1.125" OD off Amazon. I drilled out the 2 hinge pin holes in the bracket to 1.125" using a step drill. The original pin is a 13mm OD so measures .511" OD. Using a 1/2" steel bolt should be close enough if the white plastic bushings are intact. In my case I bought 2 ea flanged 1/2" ID flanged bronze bushings and filed the outside to fit the peddle tube where the plastic bushings used to be. Once done, I assembled my modified brake peddle with the bearing flanges facing outboard and cut off the overhanging unused bolt threads. It works smooth as silk & is better than new. This fixed my issue very well.. But I warn you that installing it back into my Explorer was very difficult even though I had wire brushed the 2 top bolts (holding the brake peddle bracket in place) I removed the rust & applied PB Blaster to the threads. If my index finger only would work backwards & had an extra joint it would have been simple. I'm very happy with my fix and hope this helps someone else.
Temporary fix last winter was to hook a bungee cord to the brake peddle & steering column to pull up the peddle until better weather allowed me to work on it.
I have a 1999 Explorer Sport XLT with 5 speed automatic. Drove me nuts figuring out what was wrong. Took into shop & they saw nothing wrong.
After a lot of investigation, it turns out the brake peddle pivot pin was almost rusted solid causing sever binding so when the peddle pushed down it would not return well & the friction fooled the Booster into thinking the brake was being depressed so the peddle would not go back up.
The peddle assembly took me 4 hours to remove because the 2 upper bolts fought me tooth & nail as they had rusted threads but I got it out eventually.Sure enough I could hardly move it by hand. It is designed as a non-repairable assembly. Being a non-repairable assembly, you cannot buy parts to fix it anywhere unless you desire a used peddle from bone yard which I did not desire.
Being stubborn once I got the peddle assembly out of the truck & in my hands.. I used a large socket I think 5/8" atop an anvil to support the bracket at the domed end of the pivot pin & drove out the pin deforming the side of the bracket bulging it outward until it released the hinge pin. See attached photo where I circled that domed end of the pin. (The bracket hole was drilled undersized by Ford, the pin has a groove at the domed end and I believe the bracket it had a factory made coned shape so once the pin was in place the factory flattened the cone shrinking the metal into the groove in the pin locking it in place.) Once I expanded the bracket to release the lock from the pin, I used a steel rod to punch out the pivot pin the reminder of the way.
I then bought a 1/2" x 6" grade 8 bolt along with a nylon locking nut as well as 2 flanged ball bearing assemblies 1/2" ID x 1.125" OD off Amazon. I drilled out the 2 hinge pin holes in the bracket to 1.125" using a step drill. The original pin is a 13mm OD so measures .511" OD. Using a 1/2" steel bolt should be close enough if the white plastic bushings are intact. In my case I bought 2 ea flanged 1/2" ID flanged bronze bushings and filed the outside to fit the peddle tube where the plastic bushings used to be. Once done, I assembled my modified brake peddle with the bearing flanges facing outboard and cut off the overhanging unused bolt threads. It works smooth as silk & is better than new. This fixed my issue very well.. But I warn you that installing it back into my Explorer was very difficult even though I had wire brushed the 2 top bolts (holding the brake peddle bracket in place) I removed the rust & applied PB Blaster to the threads. If my index finger only would work backwards & had an extra joint it would have been simple. I'm very happy with my fix and hope this helps someone else.
