chogokin

So, I've had my old Rocky truck ('95 F150 with 180,000) for about 6 months now and have finally decided to get off my duff and get into some repairs. The brakes are the only real thing I am curious about. For normal braking it is nice and smooth, but when I have to come to a stop fast it feels like the ABS is acting up.. not sure how to describe it but I'll try. Its almost like the firing of the ABS has slowed down from like a billion times a second to about 50... Anybody else know what I'm talking about? Its like the truck just vibrates to a stop instead of braking smoothly like normal. I'm thinking it is the ABS but any ideas on where to start looking would be helpful, Thanks

Ty

is the break fluid full?

chogokin

yup, full and clean

NGM

Does your truck have drum brakes on the back? If so then get on a empty section of road get up to about 40 or so and hit the E-brake. Does the truck have the same vibration? If so then the drums are warped. When you hit the brakes do you feel the vibration in the steering wheel? If so then the front rotors are warped. Good luck.

chogokin

thats gonna be a little tough, the PO cut the ebrake line for some reason. But I can tell you this, it does in fact have the rear drums, and the truck displays none of the standard signs of any warpage. 2 days ago while I was getting some new wheels on I looked at the rotors and drums while it was on the rack and they all look pretty good. No signs of overheating or any other damage. I've done a lot of brakes over the years but never an ABS system

NGM

Is the truck 4 wheel abs? If not then the sensor in the rear diff might be going bad or I have seen the tone rings come off in the diff. Is the speedo acting crazy? It is run off of the sensor in the rear diff.

chogokin

well, the speedo is working perfectly so I guess the sensor is working... I'm gonna look deeper into the brakes this weekend and see what a thorough cleaning does for the brake action, then I can better determine if there is a problem or not.. will keep you posted

must87

I have a similar problem with my 93 F150. The rear brakes seem to be applying much harder than the fronts most of the time, it's imbalanced and the previos owner had disconnected the e-brake. I figured that was a sign of something!

Yesterday, the brake pedal when "hard" and the brakes almost quit working. I haven't looked at it yet but was wondering if you had any luck with your problem?

Sorry I have a problem rather than an answer!