Brake Trouble

Paulio91184

Registered User
Hey Guys, i have a rock hard pedal on my 90 SC. Brake fluid is seeping out of the cap and i have no ABS or Brake lights on. It just happened while i was driving and i have no brakes now. Any Ideas? Thanks.

Paul
 
My guess would be the pump motor isn't coming on. Open the hood so you can hear. Turn the key to the "on" position. You should hear the pump motor prime. Another way to check it is to turn the key to the on postion and crack open one of ther bleeder valves at one of the rear wheel cylinders. Fluid should come out with a decent bit of force. If there's no fluid than the pump motor isnt working. I had this problem and the motor wasnt coming on. It turned out that the wiring harness under the steering column had come loose. I plugged it in and secured it and everything worked fine. If the pump motor is working than next I would think that the accumulator may be bad. Hope this helps.
 
Hey Guys, i have a rock hard pedal on my 90 SC. Brake fluid is seeping out of the cap and i have no ABS or Brake lights on. It just happened while i was driving and i have no brakes now. Any Ideas? Thanks.

Paul

Also check for power, ignision switches go out on them also, happend on both my t-birds and cougar
 
There's a relay to check on the passenger side firewall behind the hood strut. It powers the abs pump. If the pump doesn't run the accumulator doesn't pressurize and you have a hard pedal. I had the relay fail on my 92. On my 90 this happened and I changed the relay and it didn't help, so then I ordered a new pressure switch. This mounts to the pump motor under the resovoir. It's a pain to change. I had my friend do it for me since it looks like it needs a special socket to fit it (like an oil press switch). Anyhow, it monitors pressure in the brake system and then cycles the pump on and off to pressurize the accumulator as needed. Mine worked after changing the switch.

The pump itself could be bad as well. You might also want to look into replacing the accumulator ball itself ($100 from priorreman.com) because usually it's no good and it cycles the pump too much and the pump burns out. If the pump itself is shot, you are in for a big bill, it'd be easier and cheaper to convert to manual non abs brakes. There's a lot of info on this site for doing the swap. I plan to do it next summer. Search for manual brakes and you should find some info.

I ordered a switch for a buick grand national since they ran this same ~~~~~~ brake setup. It was cheaper than Ford. I still paid about $85 for the switch plus shipping. Ford's was like $115 I think. For less than that you can go buy the stuff new at Auto Zone to swap to non abs. Just need a booster from an 89 base tbird, master and resovoir from a 93 crown vic NOT police package. Some have had to modify the brake rod to push the master cylinder in more. But it can be done in an afternoon in your driveway if you know how to do brake work and then make sure to bleed it out.

If you just change the switch or accumulator you don't need to bleed the brakes.
 
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