[Shotimes] brake pedal/brake light; weird steering problems

[Kevin & Cheryl Airth]

Jason:
 Actually your question prodded me into finding the answer!! One of my SHO's
has had a soft,long pedal with the click and I just could not figure it out!
The car has had this for a long time and stops OK but compared to my other
SHO it's a WORLD of difference! I changed the master cylinder and calipers
with no luck. Now I have found in the factory service manual that my power
brake booster is bad. The rod that pushes on the master cylinder is too
short and we are "over reaching" something inside the booster! That's where
the click comes from. It's inside the booster! The bad part is that on ABS
equipped cars the booster rod length is NOT adjustable like it is in the
non-ABS cars. So this means the ONLY option is replacement. They are not
cheap new and I am looking for a used one. This seems to be fairly rare
failure so I think a used one would be OK? It looks like you can use one
from any ABS equipped Taurus, not just the SHO.
I have not changed the booster yet so everything I have told you is still a
theory but I am pretty confident that's the problem!

.
.
Kevin


Subject: RE: [Shotimes] brake pedal/brake light; weird steering problems


> My pedal clicks a little more than half way down to the stop. I was
> wondering what that was, but wasn't too worried about it. Brake flush,
Aye.
>
> ATAN Hartberger, USN
> USS Theodore Roosevelt
>
> 94 ATX red 100K



> Jason:
>  Maybe you should measure the pedal travel. Specification is only 2.43"
> total travel. You sometimes can get rid of excessive travel by doing a
good
> bleeding. With the age of your car I would recommend a though flushing of
> the brake fluid and then bleed them. See if that changes anything. Do you
> get a metallic click type sound when you press the pedal all the way down?
> There is no adjustment of the stop lamp switch. It's mounted on the brake
> pedal under the dash.
>
> The steering pulling points to alignment or maybe worn outer tie rod ends.
> They wear out pretty fast and are cheap to change. When was it aligned
last?
> Inner tie rods will have some slop at this mileage too but it's usually a
> pretty small amount.
> .
> .
>
>
> > Hi all, I got a 94 ATX recently, and it's in beautiful condition (the
ETAC
> > buttons aren't cracked and the antenna works!!!), but there are a couple
> of
> > things I'd like to know about. The first thing is, when I press the
brake
> > pedal, even ever so slightly, the brake lights come on. I know it's
> supposed
> > to be like that, but there's like another 2-3 inches of travel before
> > there's any braking effect. Is there any way of changing the point at
> which
> > the brake lights come on?
> >
> > The other thing is, the steering seems to be really sensitive to the
angle
> > of the road. Most roads, especially highways, are humped in the middle
for
> > drainage, and when I'm in the left lane, the car pulls to the left, and
> when
> > I'm in the right lane, the car pulls to the right, but when I'm in the
> > middle lane, it just points straight forward. I'm at a complete loss as
to
> > why this could be happening. It's not a major pulling, it's pretty minor
> > actually, just enough to be aggravating. Any Ideas?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > ATAN Hartberger, USN
> > USS Theodore Roosevelt, CVN-71
> >
> > 94 ATX red 100K
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