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1995 ford windstar shaking when braking

i have a shuddering to the steering wheel and van in general. it is not the abs kicking in. this happens just as you touch the brake. as you press more firmly on the brake and almost stop, it becomes less. the first diagnosis was a ball joint, then when that was replaced, it was brakes, now i have new pads, shoes, drums, both calipers on the front and one cylinder on the back, rotors turned. then maybe it was the bearings: i have new wheel bearings all around with no luck in stopping this shudder. it is quite disturbing like a mini earth quake. worse at higher speeds. even with all this brake work my brake peddle seems spongy and low. there is a squeek from the passenger side that lessens when i apply the brakes and sounds like it slows and races with the speed of the tires. now i am told it may be the rear end, or maybe just the spindle on the passenger side wheel hub. before i spend any more on this problem, anyone have any input? i am only the driver, i don't know much about the repairing of vehicles, but if the steering wheel is shaking, does this not indicate the front of the van has the problem rather than the back since the steering wheel is connected to the front wheels?

Reply to
T. Allen
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I just traded my '95 winstar with 158,000 trouble free miles on it for a '02 winstar. The shuddering is from the roters being warped. Either have them turned or replaced (about $40.00 each at NAPA) and then when replacing the wheels on the van use a tork wrench and first tighten the lugnuts to 70 ftlbs using a X patern, then retork the lugnuts to 100-120 ftlbs. This is what the shop manual recomends.

What has happened is someone probaly used an air wrench and tightened the lugnuts to the max, then when driving and applying the brakes the rotors get hot and assume the shape from the uneaven torked lugnuts.

I battled the local Ford dealer about this and never could convence him this was the problem. After rotating my tires or getting new tires I would go home and losen the lugnuts and then tork them properly. I never had another shuddering problem until the day my wife had the tires rotated and did not tell me unntil the brakes were shuddering again.....

C.

Reply to
C

Hm..... that's intresting. I've heard of (and experienced) warped rotors....but I never really knew how they got that way. I always hand torque my lug nuts...and when paying someone else to do anything that requires them to put the wheels back on.....I tell them to hand torque them. Now I have even more reason to do so. Hehe....

Reply to
Robotnik

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