Bought a 92 F250

[geno8769]

Been looking for a couple of months and finally found a truck.

It is a 92 Regular Cab, with the 5 speed. Has 248,000 on it. No rust that I can see.

Starts, drives, but have to pump brakes, and then it barely stops.

Gave $700 for the truck.. Got it home. Checked it out has 1 bad glow plug, and the glow plug controller is bad. Pulled the wheels and the brakes look good. Father in law says he thinks the MC is by-passing?

Where is a good place to buy parts for these trucks?

Great website.

 

[Compu Doc]

FIL might be wrong. A bad RABS valve can give the same indication of a bad MC. The way to determine which is giving you a problem is to disconnect the lines on the MC, block the ports off and then start the truck make sure it is in neutral before starting not just put you foot on the clutch. After the truck is running then step on the brake pedal. If it is firm then it is the RABS valve.

However before going through all that make sure that you have no leaks at all. Look at the wheel cylinders and look behind the rubber boot on each side by pulling it back a bit any wetness then replace them. Pull the calipers form the front brales and make sure the calipers do not leak.

A RABS valve can be bought at Advance but you need to give them the old one or pay the core charge and then get refunded when you bring the old one in. If it is the master cylinder at fault then buy a new one and not a rebuilt one.

Also make sure you have the rear brakes adjusted correctly. Out of adjustment rear brakes will also give a low pedal.

 

[Diesel JD]

Sweet, that will be a minor project but not too bad to fix. Even a new master cylinder isn't too expensive, and CompuDoc probably is giving you good wisdom to avoid the reman units with a part that is so critical and so inexpensive. You'll need to make sure all the brake hydraulics are in tip-top shape and that the rear brakes are adjusted right. I know nothing about ABS so I'll have to defer to the wisdom of the forum here. You probably can't figure anything out till all that hydraulic system is 100%. As far as the GPs go if it is a premium brand like Beru/Motorcraft, Borg Warner, Delphi, slm, I'd just replace the bad plug with one of the same kind, if they are autolites or champs they all need to come out as the resistance was all wrong for the solid state system, and for whatever reason, Johnson Controls did a very poor job of making these. In truth the berus work the best, but they are getting expensive and harder to find. Also why do you think the controller is bad? Usually it lasts a very long time, unlike it's very poor 6.9 predecessor. Usually the relay goes bad or it gets blamed because there are multiple bad GPs or a poor ground and it works intermittently or not at all.

 

[geno8769]

We found a box of glow plugs under thr front seat... So I think the controller has been bad awhile and they were trying to fix it with glow plugs???

Thanks for the great advice.

 

[Michael Fowler]

Another thing to check on your brake problem is the vacuum pump. Make sure it puts out sufficient vacuum to operate the brakes.
If your truck has factory air, a bad vacuum pump will also show itself by the A/C doors dumping air to the defroster instead of the vents.

 

[Agnem]

Consider installing a vacuum gauge along with aftermarket oil, and temp gauges, because the factory gauges suck, and without vacuum you do not stop!

 

[geno8769]

Is there any vendors that everyone likes to use? I was looking and it seems like everything is geared towards Powerstroke's.

 

[hesutton]

I also vote for a look at the vaccum pump or vaccum leak. It is really common on higher mileage rigs. I'd bet your truck has the oringinal vaccum pump on it.

Isspro or Autometer are commonly used gauges and should give you good service life and good info.

Heath