The dreaded spongey brake pedal

[Gigihurt]

After trolling through countless forums in search of the most likely suspect to my brake pedal issue, I came to the conclusion of the rear brakes needing adjustment. Boy was I right, the adjuster was frozen up on the drivers side, The brake pads were fine, no springs missing or broken. Pedal is perfect now. I have to say Thanks to all who posted before on this issue. saved me many bucks.

 

[icanfixall]

Welcome to the best forum as you have found out. What you described has happened to many of us here. It was tuff to figure out what the issue was but we did. Whats a sure tell tale sign is the parking brake setting near the floor when its set. So if your parking brake is not up within the top 1/4 of travel you need to manually adjust the rear brakes. Some of us have found that if we change the vacuum brake booster to the much better hydroboost and 1 5/16 inch master cylinder the soft sinking peddle is gone. The vacuum brakes are capiable of about 1000 lbs of pressure in the brake system. Hopefully we never use all that unless we need a panic stop. Now the much better hydroboost system has 2100 lbs of braking pressure avalible plus the larger master cylinder is able to push more volume of fluid into the brakes. Thats the reason we have a sinking brake peddle at full stops. The fronts do all the stopping. Then the peddle pressure trys to fill the wheel cylinders in the backs because they are so far out of adjustment. Sadly ford never did fix this problem. We did... The faithful owners of these rigs

 

[gatorman21218]

Like Gary said, if the parking break needs more than 3-4 clicks to fully engage, then you need to tighten up your shoes.

Gary why fix something that is 20 years old when they can sell you a brand new superduty? Thats the attitude at my Ford dealer anyways.

 

['94IDITurbo7.3]

here's to hoping that they stay adjusted up nice and tight for you!

 

[79jasper]

here's to hoping that they stay adjusted up nice and tight for you!

I sure wish mine would.
I have to adjust them every few weeks. And I only drive like ¾ mile total trip to/from work. Then a little extra driving, not much.
It's like they just back off.


So to the op, good luck.

 

[gatorman21218]

have you looked at your adjusters? are they wore out?

 

[icanfixall]

Sometimes the goober brake mechanics remove the parts and switch the right side with the left side. Then your adjustment will loosen up the shoes everytime..

 

[79jasper]

have you looked at your adjusters? are they wore out?

Me?
Glanced at them. Not sure what would qualify as worn out. The shoes had a decent amount of material, but were a little glazed. So I plan to replace the shoes and all hardware at the same time.

One thing is, I really don't do much backing. And hardly ever hit the brake when I do. I back into my parking spot in the yard whuch is uphill. At the shop (work) I back in also, but it's soft dirt, so I don't need the brakes there either.

I've tried hitting the brakes while reversing on an empty road to try to get them to adjust. But the brake pedal gets sorta ******* the first press.
Doesn't do that while driving forwards.

If I let them go for awhile (maybe a week while loose) when I go to adjust them again, it feels like I turn them multiple complete revolutions before they get right.

 

[gatorman21218]

ok they adjusters are a gear and sprocket type thing. Its been a while haha but if you are having trouble keeping them tight then I would assume that that something is worn and allowing it to back off

 

[79jasper]

When I had the drivers side off, I couldn't spin the adjuster backwards without pulling the arm out of the way.
Passenger side I haven't messed with much. Just keep tightening them. But I can't spin it backwards through the slot.