Alright still haven't been able to figure out my trucks brake issue still have a pedal that travels 3/4 the way to the floor before it works I've bled the brakes a million times no air bubbles new master cylinder by the previous owner and I just replaced the brake booster and adjusted the rear brakes but still the same pedal travel anyone have anything else to try before I send it off to a shop???

 

bench bled the master first,and bled the ABS block yet?

 

I've pulled off the master and bled it separate didn't chance anything

I have a 88 f250 2wd didn't think there was abs?

 

If by chance your sure you have bled everything but still have a poor pedal, remove the master off the booster and gradually adjust the pushrod. Test it after moving it very little to be sure you dont over adjust.

 

I've adjusted it to spec like someone earlier on another post told me to do but I guess it wouldn't hurt to try at least

 

1988 was the first year for ABS. You have rear ABS. You'll find the unit on the frame under the cab floorboard on the drivers side. Try bleeding the ABS unit. You can also try removing the spring from the ABS unit, sometimes they cause issues. If that made your brakes stiffer, you'd know you need a new ABS unit.

Also, replace your rubber brake hoses. If they're old, they'll "balloon" with the pressure before actually get much fluid pressure to the brakes.

Is the brake pedal stiff if the parking brake is on (suggesting the rear brakes still aren't adjusted tight enough)? Is the parking brake easy to push to the floor?

Are you sure that your brakes (shoes/drums & pads/rotors) aren't just plain worn down? Usually you adjust rear drums up to get something out of them...

Good luck!

 

if the master cylinder and power booster were recently replaced, my money is on the brake push-rod being too short, causing long pedal travel. you need to remove the master cylinder and adjust the push-rod until it is about 1/8 inch from the master cylinder piston when installed.

 

Re-adjusted the push rod length no change.

Parking brake is hard to push to in and doesn't go to the floor. And doesn't effect the brake pedal when the parking brake is on

All the pads and shoes looked good to me and the hoses were replaced by the old owner

Still going to try to bleed the abs unit and see if that has any effect

 

Well, the rear drums are adjust correctly then. That's good.

Sounds like you can pretty much rule out the brakes being in bad/worn shape then.

Yeah, see if you can do any good by doing that. Like I said, you can try taking that spring out too. I've known several similar cases where the ABS unit was the whole issue...

 

Didn't get a chance to take a look at the abs before work since it started raining but what is the spring your talking about? And by removing it what is it doing?

 

You can take the end piece of the ABS unit off and pull out a spring. That'll basically disable ABS making the ABS unit more of a fluid hub. I'll try to take a pic of my ABS unit later and post it if I get a chance.

 

Ok and by pulling the spring out if I have too and disables it ill find out if the abs unit is my problem. Now if I leave it out and just drive it like that will it affect anything else or is it fine driving it like that?

 

Yup, you'll know if the ABS unit is your issue. You can drive it just fine without it, you just won't have rear ABS...

I know of some people that have taken the spring out and just left it that way. Nothing really wrong with doing that, just be more careful. I know the rear anti-lock is helpful since the rear of the truck doesn't weigh all that much empty.

 

i removed the spring from the abs unit and made no difference at all made it worse now my pedal goes all the way to the floor tried to bleed the abs and cant seem to get anyfluid out of the screw.

 

ok after an hour of bleeding the system i got a brake pedal now now pedal travels about 1/4 then brakes engage so think i have problem solved thanks guys