sectrix

My dad and I have been trying off and on for over a year to tighten up the brakes on his truck, without success.

They work marginally; the truck does stop, but a panic stop would not happen. The front brakes do all the stopping, which still isn't much. If you really step on them, the rears lock for only a second. The pedal is very mushy, like there's air in the line.

Nearly the entire system has been replaced. Rear brakes have new drums, shoes, hardware, adjusters, and wheel cylinders. Front brakes have new rotors, pads, hoses and calipers. All steel brake lines have been also been replaced, except for the one that runs the length of the truck to the splitter for the rears. The master cylinder is also new, and was bled when it was installed.

During the course of replacing all these things we always bled the system. But no matter how much fluid we ran through the lines (we've used four or five bottles overall), the pedal never got stiff. As far as I know we've done all the installation and bleeding correctly. I have a '97 F150 that we did the exact same brake job to that worked great, as well as a '97 Expedition.

We've been all over the internet, talked to mechanics, had it power bled at a shop, had another shop suggest to replace the hoses, most parts of the system have actually been replaced twice by now - and we're totally spent. At this point, the next stop is the bank and then Ford.

Just for a last ditch effort, does anyone here have any suggestions or experience?

Stats:
- 5.4 L
- 4WD
- Front disk, rear drum
- Rear ABS

snowboarder7710

i had a 98 f150 2wd with 4.6. had the EXACT same issue you are having. the fronts were doing all the stopping. replaced the master cylinder, replaced the steel line on the rear axle. rebuilt the rear drums and they were good for a little while then they went back to mush. never was able to figure out the issue, then ended up trading the truck in on my 06. had i not traded my truck in, i was throwing around the idea of converting the drums to discs from a 99+ truck. i also wondered if it was the abs causing the problem too, but not sure. i know this doesnt help much but wanted to chime in so you would know youre not the first person to have this issue.

sectrix

Good to know. He was also thinking of converting to disk, but we're not sure if it's going to make it better or worse.

sectrix

So, turns out the calipers were on the wrong side.

My God, what a rookie mistake. I feel so stupid. At least we caught it before we spent money at the dealer. And the professionals missed it twice, so, there's that.

In any case, if anyone happens across this problem and this post, make sure the front caliper bleeder valves are ABOVE where the brake line bolts on the calipers.

Pay attention to yer part numbers!