OT: Question on 94 Ranger Brakes

On a 94 Ranger, the rear brakes are supposedly anti lock, but not the front ones. My experience with brakes says that I should be able to lock up the front tires. Does anyone know of any reason why I am not able to do this?

Thanks Lane

Reply to
lane
Loading thread data ...

Lane,

The '91 - '94 Explorers are famous for having lousy brakes. In large measure this is because the early calipers used a phenolic piston which would wear, get cocked in the cylinder and cause the front pads to drag, wear quickly and over heat the caliper and fluid. I believe that the early Rangers used the same setup. Having said that, there's no reason why your Ranger shouldn't be able to lock the fronts. Not that you'd want to do it often... Our '91 Explorer can do it on dry pavement with 31" tires.

In the absence of any other clues, these are things that come to mind that would prevent your car from doing this.

Brakes need bleeding Brake piston stuck in the caliper(s) Pads are glazed Booster isn't working well Line is pinched You're not pressing the pedal hard enough ;)

FWIW, our Explorer's supposed to have the same rear anti lock and I've gotten then to lock at least momentarily when stopping quickly.

Peter

Reply to
Peter Grey

--Get them wet and they get plenty grabby; driving on a rainy day can be quite exciting until they warm up a bit...

Reply to
steamer

Ive the 94 Mazda (same as Ranger with a different lable) and I can lock up the front brakes if I try really hard on a gravel road. But its difficult.

Does your parking brake work? Mine never did, right.

Gunner

"Guns aren't toys. They're for family protection, hunting dangerous or delicious animals, and keeping the King of England out of your face."

-- Krusty the Clown, "The Simpsons"

Reply to
Gunner

FWIW My '94 Ranger is on its' second set of front brakes(rotors and the whole bit) and it only has 54k miles on it. Greatest Ford I've had since that little 289 V8 Fairlane I had to sell when I got drafted. The V6 on the Ranger is awesome. I have the extended cab and long wheel base. I NEVER use the emergency brake(so-called parking brake) and. I suppose, it still works.

Larry

Reply to
Lawrence L'Hote

If the "greatest" Ford you've had needs two complete front brake jobs in

54K miles, I'd say it's time to change brands....
Reply to
Bob Robinson

But are you able to lock 'em up on a panic stop?

Reply to
lane

No problem at all with my parking brake. Interesting though what you say about your fronts. Same situation as mine. But I wonder if this is considered "normal"? I wonder what a service guy at a dealership would say. Maybe I'll call a few. Lane

Reply to
lane

Odd..I got 80k out of the first set of pads. Still on the same rotor on the passenger side, but replaced the drivers side rotor due to a pad failure I didnt catch. I get around 80k per set of brakes, but then most of my driving is freeway..but much of it is California stop and go. You must drive fast, stop fast.

312,000 miles on it so far. Probably going to need its third set of shocks anytime now, and ball joints soon. I dropped another engine in it at 294,000 miles. I could turn the engine over with a socket and a stubby ratchet. Never did use an oil though.

Gunner

"Guns aren't toys. They're for family protection, hunting dangerous or delicious animals, and keeping the King of England out of your face."

-- Krusty the Clown, "The Simpsons"

Reply to
Gunner

Let me know what they say.

Gunner

"Guns aren't toys. They're for family protection, hunting dangerous or delicious animals, and keeping the King of England out of your face."

-- Krusty the Clown, "The Simpsons"

Reply to
Gunner

If it's anything at all like my 96 ranger with rabs just make the damn horn louder!

Reply to
Beecrofter

Just a lot of town driving and I tow a trailer(lawn tractor). It's common practice nowadays(according to Klick and Klack in their Newspaper column) to replace and not turn down the rotors every time you replace the front pads.

Larry

Reply to
Lawrence L'Hote

Rabs? What are rabs? I know as soon as you tell me I'll go, "oh yeah"!

I've got an air horn as it is. But in this case it wouldn't have helped. I ended up in someone else bumper yesterday. Wasn't going that fast and was slowing anyway. Then all of the sudden the guy in front of me dynamited his brakes, I did too. I was just amazed that I wasn't able to stop. The front tires did not lock up. Scared the hell out of me. I don't want to repeat this again.

My truck is a 4X4 with a 4L-V6, that shouldn't make any difference, they do put bigger brakes on it than they would a little 4 banger wouldn't they?

Lane

Reply to
lane

I talked to a service rep at the dealership today. He told me yes, I should be able to lock them up. As for reasons why not, he first suggested that maybe I've got the wrong pads, as in non-metallic ones and/or that they are glazed. I think I'm going to pull the calipers off tomorrow and take a closer look at things.

Reply to
lane

lane wrote :(clip) I was just amazed that I wasn't able to stop. The front tires did not lock up. Scared the hell out of me. I don't want to repeat this again.(clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hey, if that happened to me, my truck would already be in the shop. I wouldn't be spending time on an interesting newsgroup thread.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

I never turn the rotors either. Shrug..good pads if you watch them, wear evenly. I think Ive turned rotors about 3 times in my life time.

Gunner

"Guns aren't toys. They're for family protection, hunting dangerous or delicious animals, and keeping the King of England out of your face."

-- Krusty the Clown, "The Simpsons"

Reply to
Gunner

The only reason to ever turn rotors is if there is something wrong with them such as if they are warped, have hot/hard spots (but usually replaced), or are unevenly worn.

Reminds me of a brake job I did once on a full sized Ford station wagon. The lady said that they just started to make some grinding noises earlier in the day. Pulling the wheels revealed that the piston on one side was worn down half way and into the vents (middle section) of the rotor. That is there was only half of the piston left having been ground into the rotor for who knows how long. I told her that it had been making noise for a lot longer than that one day. But she denied it 100%. She couldn't ignore the bill though, new calipers, rotors hoses etc etc. Ouch!

Lane

Reply to
lane

Gunner wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Got an 87 with 240k, got it's third set of brakes on it now. (Manual tranny....and use engine braking a lot.) No anti-lock, but it will lock all 4 up if you stand on them hard enough. Rebuilt the engine (2.3L) at 187k not because of any major problem in the engine, but the rear main seal went out...and if you have to pull the engine with that many miles...may as well go through it and freshen it up while it's out....

Reply to
Anthony

If you have organic or "non-metallic" pads it won't effect your ability to lock the wheels, but it will effect your ability to use the brakes repeatedly. Almost no one sells organic pads any more.

You can help to deglaze pads by stopping from 60 or 70 MPH aggressively a couple of times. This will help to break the glaze. Be sure to drive around and let them cool after doing this.

Peter

Reply to
Peter Grey

DANG!! My '94 B4000 on has 'bout 197,000 on it. Leaks a little oil, rebuilt the tranny last year, 1 set of shocks, 2 sets of pads(Checker lifetime guarantee- Raybestos) 2 sets of tires, the AC is out and I need to r&r the power steering pump. Best vehicle I ever owned(well 2nd best but I don't want the mazda to hear(1st best is my '53 Glasspar G2)). I think we'll be passing it down to the boy next year, if his grades hold out.

RyPhil

Reply to
RyPhil

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.