Are the brakes supposed to feel like this?

[ingrahams]

Well I joined the ranks of the OBS owners this past weekend and tore into the brakes the past few days. When I first got the truck it had warped rotors and pulsated badly so I replaced all the brakes front and rear including calipers and wheel cylinders. After bleeding the brakes the pedal seems to start off hard and and slowly head towards the floor, so I replaced the master and bleed the brakes again and still have the same problem. Is this normal or am I missing something? Thanks

 

[kadeninabnitt]

Same deal here with a new master cylinder on mine

 

[Pstroke96]

is the truck stopping fine? a weak vacuum pump could do that

 

[ingrahams]

Well afterndri ing it around it seems to be working fine, stops fine and takes get little pedal movement to get the truck stopped. Thanks for the help

 

[old man dave]

Sometimes the rear ABS unit is hard to bleed.

 

[96OBS]

I had a 1st gen a couple months ago and I put all new master cylinder on it and brake pads and bled them and all that and it did the same thing. It would be stiff at first then slowly lose pressure. May be how the new master cylinders are made?

 

[always-strokin]

OP, is this your first diesel? I ask because diesels run out of vacuum much quicker than gassers do, so I'm wondering if you are overusing the pedal and using all the vacuum, kinda like air-brakes?

 

[strokin'_tatsch]

Brake booster ZERO LOSS
(Ford) F5TZ-2005-CA

The problem is either the original brake booster that loses vacuum over time which caused the pedal to fall or your drums might not be adjusted tight enough.... That is if you're sure the lines are bled correctly. This falling brake pedal is very common on the OBS and is usually fixed by the updated brake booster from Ford. I put that part number above. My bet is on the booster since it's starting off stiff then falls... Replace it with the zero loss booster and it should get better.

 

[Tom S]

OP, is this your first diesel? I ask because diesels run out of vacuum much quicker than gassers do, so I'm wondering if you are overusing the pedal and using all the vacuum, kinda like air-brakes?

Using up the vacuum makes the pedal hard.

 

[always-strokin]

^Agreed, and good catch.

 

[old man dave]

Brake booster ZERO LOSS
(Ford) F5TZ-2005-CA

The problem is either the original brake booster that loses vacuum over time which caused the pedal to fall or your drums might not be adjusted tight enough.... That is if you're sure the lines are bled correctly. This falling brake pedal is very common on the OBS and is usually fixed by the updated brake booster from Ford. I put that part number above. My bet is on the booster since it's starting off stiff then falls... Replace it with the zero loss booster and it should get better.

If you get a new booster from Ford now, I believe you get the updated zero loss unit.

 

[always-strokin]

My 1997 doesnt lose vacuum after several weeks of sitting. Is that normal?