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Thread: Brake pedal shuddering after application

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    Brake pedal shuddering after application

    Took my truck to the shop to get an alignment after installing dropped spindles..... drove away and went to stop at a light... I start by lightly applying the brake pedal and then half way thru the push of the pedal I feel a shudder in the pedal and then it falls towards the floor a small amount... Didn't fall like 6 inches towards the floorboard but fell enough to scare me.... brakes still worked - kinda - or maybe they worked perfect, and maybe that shuddering feeling and the small drop scared me enough to think they weren't working..... is this a brake issue or could it be part of that electrical system that lets you move the pedals closer to your body or further away? I don't know, any help is appreciated!!!

    On another note, they told me that there is excess play in my steering as well.. they attributed it to the "idler arm" which he described as the "pittman arm" for the passengers side... if I replace this part, do I need to get ANOTHER alignment afterwards? SO frustrated.... got the truck looking good and now this stuff!!!!!

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    Sounds like you abs is kicking in. Did your abs light come on? Does it happen every time you hit the brakes or just that one time?

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    Quote Originally Posted by fordman View Post
    Sounds like you abs is kicking in. Did your abs light come on? Does it happen every time you hit the brakes or just that one time?
    No ABS light... and it only happens when the truck is moving.... I just went out there and mashed on the brake over and over while the truck was running and in park and it didn't do it......

    But its just about every time when coming to a stop... It's near the end of the push(the pedal to stop), almost when I am a hair away from letting go away from the break it does it......

    If this makes any sense...... here is a time line of whats happening...'


    "Pressure, Pressure, Pressure - I'm Fixin to let off the pedal, then it goes rrrrrrrrP and then the pedal falls about 1/2 an inch forward... and about less than a half a second later the pedal pressure is there again and I can push it further down to fully stop.

    Sometimes I don't need to apply that much pedal to stop(i drive like a granny) but it still does it.. I did have to unscrew the ABS sensor when I put the spindles on.. but I put them back and as far as I can see there isn't any way that I could have put them in backwards?

    Thank you for your reply and help Fordman, I really appreciate it!!!

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    Sounds like you might have bent the tone ring on the back of the rotor when you had it off. If it is bent it will cause an erratic reading, not enough to set the ABS light, but enough for it to think that the wheel is starting to lock up. You need to get it up in the air and spin the wheels by hand while looking at the tone rings. Hope this helps.

  5. #5
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    Thanks for the info! I don't know anything about the part your talking about but I'll do the best that I can to figure it out. I put some more brake fluid in the resivour - which could have been a tad low - last night and drove home from work and it didn't do it until I cranked her up around 10am(2hrs later) and it did it again. Brakes work fine until I'm almost stopped.... Then it's that 1" drop of the pedal towards the end of braking - it feels and sounds like I'm crushing a stack of Ritz crackers beneath my foot while the pedal is dropping... Then I keep pushing the brake down and it finally stops. Yeeeesh!!!! I'm going to look into that tone ring in the mean time though. Thank you for your input!!!

  6. #6
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    You know what?? I remember now that when u I put my passenger side rotor back on, it seemed to not spin as freely as the drivers side. Could that be part of it?

  7. #7
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    It could be part of it. The tone ring is the part that kind of looks like a gear with teeth or a cog. Its what your abs sensor reads. If you do not have the proper air gap or the sensor is hitting the ring it will not read properly and cause false abs operation. I would check anything you had apart when you replaced the spindles to make sure everything is good. If it didn't have a problem before and it does now it has to be something you did.

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