ABS ques.
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Senior User
Joined: Nov 2010
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ABS ques.
I'm fixing to sell a 1987 E350-based ambulance, which evidently has anti-lock brakes in front. This is not a feature I have ever had in a vehicle I owned, and not one I consider desirable, just another unnecessary complexity. Whatever, I haven't had reason to learn about or work on ABS brakes. This van has done a lot of sitting in the last couple of years, which may explain the symptoms. When I back up, the brakes make little quick light grabs at the rotors, though my foot is nowhere near the pedal. Going forward, the ABS part of the brakes seems to want to get involved too soon, before any sort of hard braking starts.
I might just leave this problem for the next owner, unless you tell me it's common and easily addressed.
I might just leave this problem for the next owner, unless you tell me it's common and easily addressed.
Laughing Gas
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 1,057
Likes: 3
From: gravel road ONTARIO
if it has 4 wheel abs its one rare 87. 87 was the first year for F series with rear ABS.
are you sure yours isn't just rear abs? its not complicated only has 1 speed sensor on the diff.
are you sure yours isn't just rear abs? its not complicated only has 1 speed sensor on the diff.
Cargo Master
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 2,112
Likes: 286
From: Eastern TN
Sounds like warped rotors and/or sticking calipers. Is there an ABS fuse you can remove to see whether it's an ABS problem? Or pull the plug on the ABS pump. If it has front ABS, it should have tone wheels on the rotors (difficult to see) and wires that look like a second set of brake lines.
Sixto
93 E150 Chateau 5.8 190K miles
Sixto
93 E150 Chateau 5.8 190K miles
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Senior User
Joined: Nov 2010
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Don't know if these ambulances had special-order front ABS, so maybe I guessed wrong (I've been so busy with other stuff during daylight hours that I haven't checked. Glad to know about the fuse, so I can look for it. It can't be warped rotors; when I test-drove the vehicle before buying it several months ago, the brakes worked beautifully, making good hard straight stops with no pulsing or snatching at all.
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