2004 Ram 1500 Front Brakes

I'm trying to get better braking from my Ram, they just don't feel like I think they should. In the last 20,000 miles it has new front and rear pads and rotors. New master, rebuilt front calipers, and russell stainless steel front brake lines. So basically everything short of the booster and rear soft lines have been replaced. It has only rear ABS. When pushing the pedal down hard I can hear the rear ABS kicking in. The brake pedal seems to go almost to the floor and I can't lock up the fronts no mater how hard I try. I just did the front caliper rebuild and russell lines. I just bled the entire system with a power bleeder and it has no air in it. I don't think the booster is bad, If I hold my foot on the pedal and start the truck it will suck the pedal down. I don't hear any leaking with the truck running or after I shut it off. If I pull the line off the booster there is still vacuum after it sits for a while. I have the russell line to go down to the rearend that I haven't installed yet and could get new soft lines to go to the rear calipers but thats about all that is left. The only other thing I'm thinking of doing is to get a set of hawk superduty pads for the front.

I would double, triple check that there is no air in the system. I've had some cars where I've bled them after doing a caliper and it looked good but after driving was still spongy. Re bled and got a tiny bit of air and they firmed up.

Make sure theres no air, and also check the caliper guide pins to make sure they are free and not rusted in place.

The caliper pins on my 1996 Ram 1500 would sieze often. I would have to overhaul the slides a few times a year. After I swapped in the one ton axles, I learned about the rear drum adjuster issues with the one ton brakes. The rears don't adjust well and needed to be manually adjusted often.
Both issues would result in a soft pedal and poor braking.
The brakes on my 2014 Ram 3500 are much better.

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Originally Posted by ajakeski

The caliper pins on my 1996 Ram 1500 would sieze often. I would have to overhaul the slides a few times a year. After I swapped in the one ton axles, I learned about the rear drum adjuster issues with the one ton brakes. The rears don't adjust well and needed to be manually adjusted often.
Both issues would result in a soft pedal and poor braking.
The brakes on my 2014 Ram 3500 are much better.

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I have never seen rear drum self adjusters that actually work. Driven many dakotas and Chevy 1500's that would have a soft pedal and then bam rear brakes lock up at slow speeds.

did you go through the abs bleed procedure? you must bleed the abs especially after replacing a master cyl, otherwise you will never get the air out of the system even with a power bleeder.

I've read this some but since my truck has only rear abs would this cause the issue i'm having? The front system is completely separate from the rear. The lines leave the master, goes down to a T and then to each brake hose. The rear leaves the master, goes to the abs module, then to the rear.

Can i bleed the abs myself or do I need to bring it to a shop/dealer to get bled? It sounds like a DRB is needed to run some type of cycle.

A few years ago (7 or so iirc) after replacing the front hoses on our 02 with rear only abs I could not get a firm pedal at all. I used one of those motive brand pressure bleeders that you pump up and let it go. After wasting 2 gallons of DOT3 I enlisted my neighbor and we did the old fashion two person brake bleed. Instantly firm pedal, the pressure bleeder just could not jar the system enough to get a few trapped bubbles out. The rear ABS on these trucks is a joke, a two person brake bleed should have no problem bleeding through the ABS module.

I'll try again and see. This last time is the first time I used the power bleeder. Every time in the past it was the two person method.

+1 on checking the slide pins on all calipers. Also, an ABS bleed essentially activates the ABS with a scan tool, so air trapped in the unit get released and sent to each individual wheel where it can then be bled out via the normal bleeding sequence. If you can get the ABS to activate during normal driving, just go back home and re-bleed the brakes. Not much different than using a scan tool. Another thing I would try, pull the ABS fuse to de-activate the ABS. Drive the truck with ABS disabled and see if the pedal feels better. I had a Ford with RABS give me an intermittent low/soft pedal and it was actually an ABS problem.

The pins all move freely. I could push them back and forth by hand. I have activated the abs a few times so I'll have to try bleeding again.