I bought my truck with no ABS sensors in the front, presumably because of the longer travel suspension. I'm sure at full droop it was probably pulling the wires apart or something. Anyways, my ABS light is on, my pedal feels terrible and shudders when braking. I figure my only solution would be to delete ABS and that wouldn't really bother me. SO does anybody have a write up, or could tell me how to do this? I searched around a little bit and couldn't quite figure it out.

 

Those symptoms have nothing to do with the ABS light or system. You would have the same problems without the ABS.

 

1. Remove the ABS bulb to get rid of the cluster warning light.

2. Fix your brakes so they don't shudder.

 

Do you have terrible pedal all of the time or just when the brakes shudder? when the brakes shudder does the truck still stop or does it feel like you are being pushed farther? if both of the answers are yes then in my opinion it is most likely an abs issue. I had similar issues in the ranger i had in high school and being a poor high school kid i just pulled the fuse for the abs system. This killed the abs light and took care of the shudder. The only problem was i had to learn how to pump the breaks to avoid skids in slick situations.

You might try to pull the abs fuse and see if that gives you the results you want. if not then i am afraid to say you have bigger things going on.

on a side note, when my abs was messed up in the ranger, it didn't matter if it was slick or not when stopping, it would act like you were trying to stop on ice and shudder and keep rolling.

 

I pulled the fuse about 8 years ago. You get used to the light being on all the time and you eventually don't notice it. The same applies to the air bag light......

 

Well that wouldn't make any sense since I just redid the whole brake system besides replace my brake booster and master cylinder and ABS system. My brake booster is kinda screwed up, it has a crack in the body but all it is really doing is creating a vacuum leak. I KNOW for a fact this isn't effecting it because I termporarily fixed it with epoxy and it still shuttered.

Truck still stops just fine, the pedal just gives me a bit of feedback and makes noises all the time. And I'm sure I can deal with not having ABS, I'll have to give it a shot since it's already halfway gone.

I'm already used to the light, I'm just sick of my pedal shuttering! It's loud all the time and the feedback when slowing down feels terrible.

 

It's important to clarify what is shuddering. Warped or glazed rotors would cause the truck to shudder as it stopped. That would have to be fixed by machining/deglazing/replacing the rotors.

On the other hand, if the ABS system is kicking in (whether properly or not), that causes the feedback through the pedal and a sort of grinding noise as the ABS cycles.

So, based on your last email, it sounds like the latter; the ABS pump is running, the pedal vibrates, and the truck takes a longer time to stop. Yes? If true, pull the ABS fuse. You will know right away if that fixed the problem; the pump won't run and the truck should just stop normally. If it still pulses as it stops, it's not the ABS.

 

If the ABS warning light is on, the ABS system is offline anyway and is not functional. Therefore, the "shuddering" should not be an ABS issue. That takes one back to the basic hydraulic brake system.

 

The rotors all just got machined with ceramic pads, and I tried to find a diagram as to where this fuse would be, couldn't find anything on google or here. Does anybody possibly have a link to the schematics for it?

I dont think it would be offline if only 2 of the sensors were gone up front.

 

Just realized I was using the wrong type of shuddering hahaha, my bad if that still mislead someone.

 

Your owner's manual will have the location of all fuses and relays. Download it if you don't have it.

Maxifuse #102 under the hood in the PDB, but this may also kill the ignition switch.

 

ANY fault that causes the ABS warning light to come on means the ABS system is OFFLINE.

 

Where's the best place to download it? Truck didn't come with one unfortunately.

 

What's your suggestion then? I got all 4 rotors machined and resurfaced and put on ceramic pads maybe 500 miles ago and it's still feeling the same way it did before, just stops much faster and has less fade.

 

Who did the installation of brake parts? Check their work like did they overtighten the lug nuts and warp the rotors?? Are the pads oriented the right way?