I have a '98 Ram 1500 4x4 with rear ABS. Love my truck but the braking SUCK!!!! I have been doing a little bit of towing lately and it is getting dangerous.

A little history:

1) I have bled the hell out if the system and no joy.
2) I have adjusted the crap out of the rear brakes to no avail.
3) I had to replace a rusted brake line, but that didn't help. It only recovered my poor braking from zero braking.
3) I have replaced the front pads and rotors with drilled & slotted with ceramic pads.
4) One thing I noticed today is on hard braking, the nose doesn't dip like one would expect. Maybe due to the self adjusting shocks I have on the front.

I am about to replace the brakes (they are due) and want to tackle this problem once and for all. I have seen people recommend using the 1 ton wheel cylinders. Ok they are on the list, but what else to check/replace?

 

Master Cylinder?

 

How do you test the MC?

 

What are the symptoms of the problem?
Pedal going to the floor?
Does it have trouble stopping with just you in the truck?

What is the weight of the trailer you're towing?
Any ABS or Brake lights on?


The brakes were mushy on my 98 when I bought it.
Had my foot and the brake one time and it hung there, then went to the floor and didn't recover. ABS and Brake lights came on.

If the brake is not recovering, you MC may be bad.

And watch out for nonfunctional re-man MC's.
The shop I took my truck to found 2 bad ones.
I ended up with a new one for the price of a re-man.


Hope it works out for ya!

 

Sorry you will have to get some one smarter than me to jump in to help you on that one.

I had really soft brakes a while back and did some thread searching here and figured out I had a leaking wheel cylinder that only leaked under prettty heavy load. But from looking I had it in my head if that did not fix it I was headed for a master cylinder replacement so I was just trying to point out a possibility if you have already changed out everything else and are still unhappy. I don't actually claim to know what I am doing though.

 

Is the pedal spongy or does it leak down? Have you examined your soft lines for bubbles? Crawled every inch of the lines looking for abnormalities? Confirmed that the front calipers are actuating?

Need more information!

 

It does sound an awful lot like the front calipers might be siezed. Either the pistons in the bores. (thus NO front brakes) Or, the calipers on the guides. (in which case, just radically inefficient front brakes, and pads that wear funny......) Even if they are just binding.

Unregistered has a good point as well, How old are your soft lines?

 

Let me try to answer as many questions as possible.

1) Soft lines are the same age as the truck.

2) Brakes doesn't really feel bad, but will go to the floor and not stop truck.

3) Poor braking with just me in truck and it is exasperated by any extra weight. I cannot slam on brakes and have the wheels "screetch".

4) The front brakes do wear. I am getting ready to replace them. I will check function when I do the brake job.

5) The truck has larger than stock tires. I do not have the number handy, but the original owner put the largest tires he could fit on the stock AL rims.

My goal is to open the system once and replace all that needs. So far it looks like larger wheel cylinders and soft lines.

Thanks Guys. Any hint on testing the MC?

 

Pedal going to the floor IS bad. You either have a leak somewhere, or, the master cylinder is blown. Need to figger that one out.

Also, when you have your brakes reassembled, before you put the front tires back on, have someone step HARD on the pedal, and watch your front brake lines, if they swell noticeably, replace them.

 

Going to the floor is a not quite correct. The brakes grab, I can hear the front rotors "grinding" (brakes/pads need replaced), and I can push the pedal as far as it will go (moderate resistance), but the truck slowly rolls to a stop. 20 mph and a hard stop = about 2 truck lengths to stop.

On another note, does a 1 ton master cylinder fit a 1/2 truck's booster and brake lines?