Hello all, I am new to this site and this is my first post so If I leave anything out, I am sorry in advance! I picked up an 89 ford ranger 2wd 2.9L 5 speed a few weeks ago to use for daily driving, It is in good order strong driveline, decent body, but upon getting it home I found the ABS <Rear abs equiped only> is on as well as my brake warning light/pb light. I read a few posts on this site about accessing the rabs codes by finding the wire harness with the black orange wire under the dash and unplugging it then grounding it for a cople seconds witht he key in the run position with the engine off. Well, that harnes on my ranger is not pluged into anything, just a blk/orng male harness dangling, and when grounding attempted no flashing or anything. Now I do not wnat the ABS to begin with, so what would be needed to scrap out the abs system on this truck, It was an option I think this year so taking it off should be legal, but some advice would be great! I am not sure if I need to put a pressure differential in for front rear brake use or if the master cyl is already set up to provide a lesser brake effort in the rear. thanks in advance! Jeph.................

 

The Brake Warning light and ABS light are on? There might be some air in the system or something. Try bleeding the brakes. You master cylinder is full and not leaking, right? If you can get the brake light to go out, I think you'll be safe with pulling the bulb out of the ABS light and forgetting it, as long as the brakes feel good. When the ABS light is on, the ABS system is cut off anyway, until it senses the problem is gone.

You might just want to check to make sure the parking brake light switch is okay, that could be causing the brake light to remain on.

I wouldn't continue to drive it with both lights on, however.

I'm sure someone who know's more about ABS can chime in and hopefully get that ABS light out.

 

I am not driving it yet, getting it ready for MOT/safety check. rear brakes work excellent when testing around the yard, parking brake switch, I am still trying to find schematics for the circut, i know the plug at the master 3 wire brake warning switch was coroded all to hell, so after taking the harness all apart and cleaning it up i can get the light to go out if i pull the center wire from the harness, but I want it to work right. I have a haynes manual, but it only includes wire schm. for the ecu and lights, the conector to the park brake is two wire to the sring swich, do i ground it out to test or ad 12v? but i am sure with the issue of the abs on top not much is right, I am going to have to just go over everything and see what I find. If anyone knows where I can get some decent wire diagrams for this that would be appreciated, plus a diagram for the fuse block under the dash too, not in haynes manual and have not got the owners manual for this beast! thanks for your speedy reply! jeph.....

 

The best bet for wiring diagrams is the Ford "electrical & vacuum troubleshooting manual"/EVTM about 20 bucks from helminc.com

What makes it so MUCH better is that it has seperate wiring diagrams for all the circuits in your truck, and it tells you where every relay/splice/fuse etc is located.

I'm surprised that yours is wired different from my 87 The EVTM for my 87 shows only one wire to the E-brake switch. Set the E-brake & the switch grounds the wire.

If I bought a used Ranger and the only "problem" with the brakes was the ABS was'nt working I would'nt waste my money fixing them. But that's just me.

 

Don't like the rear abs anyhow, away with it! thanks for all your help! Jeph.....

 

The Rear ABS light on ,my 91 ranger has been on for about a year now, I got sick of it so took the dash apart and pulled the bulb, brakes work fantastic. That'd be what i would do personally, The idoits at inspection wouldnt be any wiser either.


Eric.