New slant on old brake problem

So my brakes quit working, glad I had the new accumulator, didn't think this was to bad driving without the power booster, kind of miffed that "MY" brakes would quit working, but they did.

Yes I stepped on the brakes, felt some back pressure, saw both lights on and said crap, but it only took a little extra foot pressure to stop and I figured

I could live with it for a day or two if I absolutely had to and it got me home no trouble at all until the very last time I used the brakes and accumulator pressure was gone. The garage door got real close real quick, lucky for me the door opener was working.

Why do I tell this story first? A good accumulator will give you a chance to make yourself safe, a weak one won't.

Long and the short of the problem was a weak female spade connector on the brake relay socket. Not burned, broken or melted in any easy to spot way, just loose enough that it stopped making contact and solid enough that it looked and tested good from the top.

How did I find it? I took the relay pack loose from the bracket, turned it over in my hand and pulled one wire at a time until one pulled free. Little squeeze with the pliers to tighten up the connect and back on the road. That will do until I can get a new connector that snap locks into the block.

Digger -- thanks for sharing the brake issue. I will share one that we just experienced. Our 91 white 6 cyl. The yellow ABS light was on for a number of months never really dug into it as the brakes seemed to be working fine. Then the red brake light started to come on as well as the ABS light. At first the red light came on intermittently, finally both were on all the time but the brakes seemed to be still working fine. I checked the brake fluid level first. Then I inspected the 3-relay box on the passenger side of the engine compartment. I pulled all 3 relays and both of the 2 fuses. The relays and fuses looked OK no blown fuse or burned or melted relays. I took some sandpaper and cleaned all the metal plug ends on all of the relays and on both of the fuses, got the plug ends all fresh looking and shined up, as they all looked to have significant oxidation on them. Put all relays and fuses back into place and low and behold both the yellow ABS and red brake lights went out after the car was started. So anyone that has either the yellow ABS or red brake lights coming on, after checking the brake fluid level the first thing I would recommend is to clean all of the relays and both of the fuses in the brake system relay box on the passenger side of the engine compartment. It is the easiest thing to do before tearing into the whole brake system.</SPAN>

Digger -- thanks for sharing the brake issue. I will share one that we just experienced. Our 91 white 6 cyl. The yellow ABS light was on for a number of months never really dug into it as the brakes seemed to be working fine. Then the red brake light started to come on as well as the ABS light. At first the red light came on intermittently, finally both were on all the time but the brakes seemed to be still working fine. I checked the brake fluid level first. Then I inspected the 3-relay box on the passenger side of the engine compartment. I pulled all 3 relays and both of the 2 fuses. The relays and fuses looked OK no blown fuse or burned or melted relays. I took some sandpaper and cleaned all the metal plug ends on all of the relays and on both of the fuses, got the plug ends all fresh looking and shined up, as they all looked to have significant oxidation on them. Put all relays and fuses back into place and low and behold both the yellow ABS and red brake lights went out after the car was started. So anyone that has either the yellow ABS or red brake lights coming on, after checking the brake fluid level the first thing I would recommend is to clean all of the relays and both of the fuses in the brake system relay box on the passenger side of the engine compartment. It is the easiest thing to do before tearing into the whole brake system.

Cleaning the contacts is always a good thing to do when looking for the flaky problem. Mine was a little more insidious, the female spade connect wasn't tight in the mount, these things have a spur that is supposed to keep if from backing out when the other contact is pushed in. Mine moved back when the relay was pushed in and pulled back into place when the relay was pulled out so it looked and tested good. When I flipped the contact block over and tugged on the wires it came out of it's hole. Pushed it back in, pushed the relay in and watched it move, relay made contact and the pump started working but the connector moved down in the block and only part of the spade was connected. Darn thing won't latch in the block and I didn't have any to replace it with so I crimped the connector to make it darn tight on the contact and forced it up from the bottom. This not only got the pump working, it's working good and I now go from pressure discharged to lights pump off in less than 10 seconds.

Digger -- you know now that you mentioned it; i remember a similar issue with i think it was the center relay, in which one of the females was loose inside the connector block. after I noticed that, i put my finger on that female wire from underneeth the connector block while i pushed the relay back into place on top of the block, all conncections seemed to be made. anyway, very close inspection of all components of that brake relay block and fuses do need to be closely observed. thanks again for your insight.

Shame on both of you for not mentioning dielectric grease!

There is a product out there called Deoxit for cleaning contacts and it is hands down the best thing around for cleaning contacts. It is a bit pricey but well worth it. I know Amazon carries it.

Trychlorel chloro ethylene, federal regs restrict the sale of this to the general populace as a contact cleaner because it causes cancer. Readily available to everyone in spray cans marked brake cleaner. Go Figure.