88 F-150 Brake question

MIKEGREENE

MEMBER
1988 ALL OTHER MAKES ALL OTHER MODELS

Hi, I have a 1988 F-150 4X4.
I've gone thru the brakes and find that no matter how much I bleed the brakes I cant get the fading/spongie pedal to tighten up.
I've blead them the good ol school way several times and with a vacuum bleeder. Finially I bought a set of Speed Bleeders http://www.speedbleeder.com/
(These are really awesome)

I suspected that there was a problem with the proportioning valve but this truck doesnt have one. I did find that it has an ABS control valve on the frame, could this valve be mallfunctioning?

Thanks for the help

5 Replies

BRUCE HUNT

MECHANIC
3,753 POSTS

Have you considered that your master cylinder could be failing?

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

Thursday, January 11th, 2007 AT 2:59 PM

MIKEGREENE

MEMBER
4 POSTS

I have replaced it, then and after about 1 month decided that I got a bad one (suspected that it was bypassing internaly) and swapped it for another one.
The problem never got better.

SPONSORED LINKS

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

Thursday, January 11th, 2007 AT 4:12 PM

MIKEGREENE

MEMBER
4 POSTS

Bruce, you haven't forgotten me have you?
My manual doesn't cover the ABS module under the truck on the inside of the frame. This is the only thing I haven't tried to date.

Any info will shurely be appreciated.

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

Friday, January 12th, 2007 AT 2:33 PM

HEAVYDUTY

MEMBER
60 POSTS

Make sure your rear brakes are in adjustment

Was this

answer

helpful?

Yes

No

Sunday, January 14th, 2007 AT 8:52 PM

MIKEGREENE

MEMBER
4 POSTS

Ok it will be a couple of days before I get another day off to work on it.
I does have self adjusting brakes and I did repl the hardware, but I'll check that anyway