Hi,
I have a '99 F350 dually V10 long bed SuperDuty 4x4 with antilock disc brakes on all wheels that I bought used about 3 years ago. The tires have about 5,000 miles on them and are Goodyear like the originals.
First, some history: Before I bought the truck I took it to a Ford dealer to have it checked out. Cost me about $65 but well worth the money. The Ford dealer told me the left front rotor needed replacing as well as some other non related issues not related to brakes.
I replaced both front rotors. The rear rotors don't look too bad but there is some pitting. I bought severe duty pads from NAPA and installed them in front and back.
Last year after my wife had driven the truck she told me she thought something was wrong with the brakes. We are fortunate she got home with it. When I tried the brakes the pedal went to the floor. The metal brake line running to the rear brakes was rusted and split, gushing brake fluid. The reservoir was very low. I was surprised that this would happen, since the truck was only about 4 years old. I bought replacement brake line and repaired it, then bled the brakes at each wheel according to the manual. Is there any other place there might be some air mixed in with the brake fluid besides the lines to the wheels and the wheel brake cylinders that I forgot about?
The Question: In all the time I have owned the truck, I have never felt like the brakes worked as well as they should. This includes before and after replacing the broken metal rear brake line.
I don't expect the truck to stop like a small car, but since I have never owned a truck like this before, I don't know if the brakes are ok. The biggest vehicle I owned before the truck was a 2 door 95'Ford Explorer with ABS that stopped very quickly.
Braking Examples: I thought there might be a problem with the ABS, but if it is raining and I panic brake, the pedal modulates as expected and brings the truck to a smooth stop.
On a dry level road, if I panic brake, the truck stops smoothly and fairly well, but the ABS never activates, and the tires never screech or lockup. Shouldn't the tires screech a little or the ABS activate some when I do this?.
Does anyone have a benchmark for panic braking? For example, traveling at 25 mph on a level, dry road, and panic braking. How many feet should the truck stop in? If I had this information, I could run my own test.
The brake pedal requires a fair amount of pressure. To check the vacuum brake booster I pumped the brake pedal a few times with the engine off, and when the engine was started the pedal did drop some. The service manual says this means the booster is working. Could the booster be weak or leaky or something?
Am I overlooking something? Thanks for reading my rambling post. I know there are some experts out there and I hope you can give me some guidance.
Thanks,
Jack
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