Brake Problems/Increased stopping distance

Maintenance/Repairs
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22

No I did not. I changed the drum shoes only but they work fine.

23

Thatā€™s what I thought. Iā€™m willing to try and replace it but Iā€™m running out of options here lol

24

Iā€™ve never had consistent brake-bleeding results using the hand-held vacuum pump method myself. Thereā€™s another vacuum bleeder method that uses compressed air to create the vacuum. That vacuum bleeding technique might work better. A pressure bleeder method may be needed to complete this job.

As far as other possibilities for whatā€™s causing this problem, describe the sequence of events from when the brakes worked correctly, to when you first noticed they were spongey.

25

So my abs light came on and it ran a code saying my abs pump was bad. Cleared the code with a scanner and it never came back. Couple days later my dad drove it and said he couldnā€™t stop coming down the hill and that the brake pedal was spongy. ABS light hasnā€™t come on since.

26

If thatā€™s how the trouble startedā€¦with an ABS codeā€¦is there an abs fuse on this truck? Have you tried pulling the fuse to disable the abs and see if the brakes are still spongey?

I do not know what the symptoms of a faulty abs pump would be, whether abs just wouldnā€™t work, or if youā€™d get a soft pedal. Others here might know, though.

1 Like
27

Donā€™t you think it is time to have a professional brake shop involved in this ?

3 Likes
28

I concur w/SYJ above, at the point where you had a spongey pedal but hadnā€™t opened any brake lines Iā€™d have just disabled the ABS system and an experiment to see if the spongey pedal problem went away. Even though youā€™ve already opened the brake lines, trying this idea still makes sense. It could very well be that the problem has nothing to do with your brake bleeding technique.

29

I figure I update everyone about my problem so if somebody is experiencing the same thing it might help them. The problem was my brake booster causing my spongy brake pedal and increased stopping distance. Brakes work good now. Thank you everyone for the help and input.

3 Likes
30

So exactly how was the brake booster causing the spongy pedal?

31

I would think it would of given you a hard pedal.

32

No idea. I shook the broken one and heard something bouncing around in there. Something broke inside of it but I didnā€™t bother opening it up and checking what it was.

1 Like
33

Same here thatā€™s why it was the last thing I tried to change.

34

Fair enough