This is what i did when i first got my truck. My wife was kinda upset i was already working on it.



The fix for "Mushy brake pedal feel" is quite simple. Most of the ford vehicles i have owned needed this fix done.
There is a shaft that is adjustable behind the Master Cylinder and is attached to the brake booster. You need to take off the master cylinder but DO NOT remove any of the master cylinder brake lines (Be careful not to bend any). There is enough room to move the master cylinder out of the way and not remove the lines. Be careful not to lose the O-ring that seals the master cylinder to the Brake Booster. It will be kinda tough to remove at first because of the vacuum that is still in there. The 2 nuts that need to be removed are 1/2". After the master cylinder is removed use a 45* or 90* needle nose pliers to hold the splined shaft and unscrew the 7mm bolt on the end of the shaft. This makes the rod longer which engages the brakes sooner. I unscrewed mine (2008 f150 4x4 screw) 3/4 of a turn and it seems to be about right. I took mine for a test drive and then jacked up the front of the truck and spun the tires to see how much drag i had. If you unscrew the bolt too far it will keep the brakes engaged and you will have a warped rotor or a lot of brake dust . If you look at the pictures i used a paint pen and marked the top of my socket so i knew how far i had unscrewed the bolt. Assemble in the reverse order. If you have any questions or this doesn't make sense let me know and i will try to further explain. Good Luck!!!!

 

If you give the breaks a couple of pumps with the truck off before you start theres no vacuum. Easily pulls right off.

 

Good point!
Thanks

 

Hi guys, my dad has an 04 f-150 and he just brought it to my attention that his brake pedal feels soft. I read about adjusting the pushrod but it feels like a bad master cylinder, and why would the pushrod all of a sudden need adjustment? Have you guys had bad pedals from day one or is it something that happened suddenly?

 

Mines been mushy since I bought it.

 

my 04 s/crew was soft from day one

 

but not now! what a simple fix, i wish the dealer would have done this years ago.

 

My brand new 08 F150 was mushy when i drove it off the lot. When i asked the salesman about it he sad that is just how they are. My 99 windstar and 95 f150 both also had mushy brakes. I did the same fix to both of them and problem gone.

If you have had good firm brakes and then they fade that is a different problem probably related to a leaking master cylinder internally or a leak in the system somewhere.

 

I just did the brake pedal mod ... what a differance.. best 15 min. job ever, BTW I turned mine out 1 full turn.. jacked up the front after test drive & no brake draging ... good luck

 

I looked at the other forum post, cut and pasted it into a format that I thought my dealer would understand and clipped it to my keys when I dropped the truck off Wednesday night. They called me by 10 Thursday morning saying the truck was ready to pick up! Wow! I've got brakes!!!!! BTW, this is an '05 SCrew that's still in warranty. They replaced the MC for me less than a month ago and I still had the same ol' spongy brake feel. This fix works! Take some form of description of it with you to the dealer and it will work! The post I used I think had more credibility than saying, "Some guys on line said....." because it has a service manager's name, dealer name and phone number on it.

THANKS!

 

Good... Glad it worked. I copied it to here for just that reason. The more people it helps the better.

 

My 2008 has the same problem sometimes i think its not gona stop im will try this . good info!

 

My wife complains about my 2000 excursion having the same issue. I am gonna try it!!

 

Funny this should come up again. My brake pedal has gone soft again. When I ease to a stop, it sinks further down than the gas pedal. Since they've addressed it twice under warranty, think they'll cover it under warranty again? I've got 47k on the truck.

 

Am I in the right spot? I didn't see the adjustment in there? What did I do wrong? The shaft does turn freely and has about 3/8" slack back to front.
Help.