Is it safe to bypass the rear ABS valve? Mine is bad and its $180 to replace. Truck has 239,000 miles on it so I don't want to spend a lot of money on it. I just want to be able to pass inspection. Does anyone have any experience or know of anyone who has bypassed the valve? Do the brakes still function OK? I'm concerned the rear brakes will lock up every time I hit the brakes.

 

yes, you can bypass it fine. i did just that with my old 89 ranger that had the rabs valve leaking slightly giving me a soft pedal. instead of blowing the $150 plus for a new valve (for just rear abs which i have always thought was quite useless versus 4wheel abs) i just plumbed in a new brake line from the front input line that went into the valve back to the rear axle. i did this because i had a leaking line back near the axle too. regardless, that only cost a few bucks for some ready made brake line and some fittings. braking was fine afterwards, just no rabs. another thing you will have to do, or at least what i did, was to pull out the bulb for the abs idiot light in the dash else after removing the valve, it will always be lit, and make you fail your inspection.

good luck

chad

 

Or, just leave the RABS valve mounted and plugged in electrically, even though it's bypassed hydraulically.

 

Yeah you leave it mounted and plugged in, the comp doesn't know the difference, and it'll pass inspection everywhere that I've seen.

 

I am in the same situation with my 92 Explorer. It has 205K miles and the rear abs valve is stuck. Don't have the money to buy a new one.

What parts will I need to make a bypass? I would like to purchase the parts in advance before I pull it apart. This way I know that the truck will only be down for a bit.

Thanks!

 

Actually, my 90 Ranger RABS still works fine, but the RABS valve on my 92 Explorer has been bypassed now for about 2 years. I haven't noticed any difference. I don't remember the exact dimensions of the fittings, but if you remove the valve and take it up to the parts store, you can easily make the correct bypass. I bought a pre-made brake line, I think about 18 inches long. Your valve should only be about 4 inches wide but I couldn't find a pre-made line that short. I got the longer line so I could put a loop in it. This was to make alignment to the existing brake line fittings easier. The pre-made line had male fittings on both ends. Once you remove the RABS valve, you are also left with male fittings on both brake lines. All you need to purchase is one pre-made line and two unions that will join both male fittings...or custom-make a line to work. I left the old RABS valve plugged in to keep the ABS light off.

My only hesitation to all this is the proximity of the exhaust manifold to the bypass, but in 2 years, I haven't noticed any problems.

My old valve was full of rust due to contaminants in the brake fluid. This was the cause of valve failure. After the bypass, I flushed the whole system (several times) and replaced the calipers and wheel cylinders. I then promptly flushed the system on the Ranger to prevent any problems with it as well. Fortunately, it still works.