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Help looking for a brake fluid distribution block

2K views 7 replies 3 participants last post by  three60fish 
#1 ·
I'm trying to repair the brake system on my truck by a process of elimination/getting rid of unneeded shit. It's a 95 Ram 2500 V10 4x4. It has front ABS only and the system doesn't work. I know for sure because I broke at least one tone ring off an outer axle shaft when I replaced the U-joints:homer:. I believe that my almost complete lack of pedal may be due to the ABS system that the fluid runs through. IT will lock the rear wheels up if I try to, but you have to pump it to get pedal. I know I know, sounds like air in the lines, but we've bled the living shit out them along with replacing the master cylinder, booster, calipers a short while back, rear wheel cylinders and a few pieces of line as needed. IT seems the only weak and unknown link left is the stupid ABS module/pump, whatever the fawk it is.

I'd like to just put a plain fluid distibution block there, but I can't seem to find a generic one that isn't a proportioning valve. I don't need a prop valve, just a 1-in 2-out distribution block. Shit I don't even care whether the tube sizes are right, I'll find adaptors. This may only be temporary, may not, depends on whether or not it works!

And don't lecture me about removing the ABS, it doesn't function anyway. And further, I'm trying to eliminate variables here.

so any ideas on a generic brake fluid distibution block? I've searched and can't find?:confused:
 
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#2 ·
You need a proportioning valve to prevent early lockup of the rear brakes, especially in a pickup with no weight in the bed. Just get the cheap knob style, plumb the front brakes straight to the master cylinder and put the proportioning valve in the rear lines, dial it in and drive it. If you mount the valve in the floor, you can dial it in while you drive to compensate for a load or trailer.
 
#3 ·
That's the thing, there's already a built in prop valve for the rear brakes in the system. As far as I know it functions, but on these trucks they function like a really crude gyrometer and I understand that they are shitty and don't always work properly. I'll deal with the proper functionality of the factory proportioning system once I can get decent pedal in the truck.

The bigger problem here is that I'm a retard and should just grab a block off a rear axle since they are almost always 1-inlet 2-outlet! Didn't think of that until this morning.
 
#5 ·
The one on the rear is just for weight proportioning with a load. You will still need something to prevent than rear brakes from locking up early, not allow more braking with a load. The two valves work together, but both are somewhat necessary. The weight valve in the rear can be eliminated if you want to control it manually from a manual proportioning valve up front, but it does not take the place of the valve that deals with front/rear bias. If you run with nothing but the rear weight valve you will still get early rear lockup which will make trying to keep the ass end from passing the front end a full time job on wet pavement.

Also keep in mind that if you eliminate the stock valve system, you are eliminating the safety shutoff so if you spring a leak, it will pump all the fluid out of the reservoir instead of shutting off the leaking circuit and leaving you at least one set of brakes.
 
#4 ·
You can use a T-piece like the ones that are used often on solid rear axled vehicles, on top of rear axle... flexi hose going to T-piece, then a single line going to each caliper/wheel cylinder.
That's what I did.
 
#6 ·
Ok, that makes sense. But I'm only eliminating the ABS unit that is bolted to the inner fender. It has one line that comes out of some type of valve/block going into it, then two lines going out of it that each go to the front calipers. I don't think that eliminating this ABS system will have any affect on the factory proportioning system, which has to exist correct? There are two valve/block type things underneath the master cylinder; I'm thinking one is the gyrometer and one is the stock prop valve. I'm not eliminating either of these, I only want to eliminate the ABS unit. Although I don't wonder if one of these valve/blocks is bad, but according to the unreliable Haynes manual's suggested test they are still functioning properly.

While I may resort to the rear axle block in place of the ABS unit, I'm still not set on this idea due to the fact that I forgot that many of these blocks are part of the rear brake hose which I think may complicate my idea.

so I'm still looking for some type of generic single inlet double outlet brake fluid distribution block.
 
#7 ·
Ok, it seems they are separate if we are talking about the '95 BR series in your sig. Damn thing is confusing since the illustrations are split up and I don't have a truck here to look at. Seems there is a proportioning valve mounted right up with the master cylinder beside a "Pressure Limit Valve Assembly". The Anti-lock appears to be mounted on the inner fender. Not sure exactly what the pressure limit valve is all about so it might be safer to try to keep it along with the proportioning valve which is mounted with it, sort of at an angle according to my half-assed illustration in the Mopar Parts Manual. If I had a FSM I could tell you more but it might be worth looking into. Not sure how those systems will like operating without the anti-lock hydraulic control unit. I'm thinking they probably won't care either way, but it's hard to tell without looking into it more. If it acts weird you can always toss it all and go with the manual valve.
 
#8 ·
Yeah, it's like there are three seperate pieces of shit for the fluid to go through once it comes out of the master. It is really confusing and there are a lot of little stub lines coming and going here and there. I'm slowly understanding more about how this system is supposed to work, but idk. That's why i'd like to just try to cheaply eliminate separate pieces of it to simplify it and narrow it down. I really only use the truck for landscape, hauling a snowblower around for snow removal, and whatever stupid shit i decide i need to use the truck for; ie it's not my daily driver. The brakes function right now, but if you don't know about the pedal travel, you'll shit your pants the first time you try to stop. I'd like to make them work correctly, but the beast has 203,xxx on it and I just need it to function for as long as I can stop it from crumbling to the ground, so no major money or parts are going to be thrown at it.

Right now I'm looking at spending $20 or so on a new rear brake 'hose'. This should allow me o hook the one inlet into the hose end and the two outlets going to each front caliper into the two outlets on the block which is an integral part of the hose. It's not ideal, but it should do well enough to get rid of the ABS unit at least temporarily to find out if its causing me trouble or not. The old man and I are simply at a loss for why we can't get any decent amount of pedal in this thing.

The added bonus to removing the ABS unit permanently, if possible, is that I will gain a bunch of room to put in a dual battery setup like I'd like.
 
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