All started with front drivers side pads totally worn down and rotor damaged years back. All other pads looked great with very little wear. I replaced the Caliper, rotor and pads on front drivers side and bled lines. Firm pedal, but always seemed that more effort was required for braking. Brake light and abs light would come on at times, pumping the brake would sometimes clear the light and sometimes not, braking effort did not change. I have been suspecting something with the drivers side front, maybe a sensor feeding back to the ABS?

Problem comes and goes, when driving in the parking garage and turning the corners at the wall,, sometimes pedal is rock hard and seems to push back against your foot.. I have to stand on the pedal to get it to slow down for the turn, almost drove thru the wall today. Never had that happen anywhere else, but has happened a couple of times there. Time to get some help, Re there sensors on the front wheels that could cause this?

Mark

 

Moving this to Second Gen Ram section.

Does your truck have 2 or 4 wheel ABS? (are there wheel speed sensors on the front?)

When you did the brake work, did you replace the soft line as well? They are known for that particular failure mode. (apply the brakes, and one side or both, won't release.) If the line has a partial blockage, it may not let fluid pass in either direction.... which would give you high pedal effort, with very little braking.

 

When "bleeding" a brake system with 4 whl ABS, you need a bi-directional scanner to properly bleed the ABS portion of the system, especially if you let air into the lines when you replaced the calipers.

 

I did not change the soft lines. Did not let air into the system when I changed the Caliper, made sure reservoir stayed full, and then bled lines. Performed a brake fluid flush a couple of weeks ago also. Flushed 2.5 large bottles of DOT3 thru lines. Always had a firm pedal, never soft or mushy. I honestly do not know if it is 4Wal or not, but I suspect so. Does have pads on all wheels. No shoes. How to tell if FWAL?
Thanks

 

Look for wheel speed sensors on the front. If you have them, then, 4WAL.

Try an experiment. Jack up the front of the truck. Spin both front tires by hand. Stand on the brake pedal a couple times, then try and spin the tires again. Feel any different? They should turn fairly freely..... (before and after. )

 

Pull the passenger side caliper and slurp some brake fluid out of the master cylinder. Use a large C clamp to press the caliper back in. It should move smoothly. If it's sticking, the left side is doing all the work. It's also possible you have a bad flex hose. Those can give you a rock hard pedal but poor stopping power. My '96 pulls hard to the left when I hit the brakes so I'll going to check the RF caliper on it. I have other stuff to do to it before I work on the brakes though.

 

Definitely has sensors on both front wheels. Jacked up spun wheels to check tension, stood on brake hard a couple of times, both front wheels had pads dragging slightly. Cranked truck and repeated, pumped brakes 3 or 4 time hard and tried again. Both wheels harder to turn, front passenger side is definitely hardest to turn. Initially significantly harder.

Neither side releasing enough to be as free as before pumping.

 

Did you check to see if the caliper assy moves freely back n forth. Along the axis of brake pad compression?

 

I did when I replaced the pads, not lately.

 

Change the soft lines up front. Probably wouldn't hurt to do the rear line as well, they are all the same age.....