ABS

[85chev62]

Still having problems with the damn ABS system on this 1996 Ford Windstar 3.8 V6. Most of the time when I depress the brake pedal the ABS kicks in and a person can hear the ER ER ER sound and feel the pulsation on the pedal. After some driving, the ABS light will illuminate on the dash and when I press the brakes they react fine, no sound, no pulsating, just smooth stopping. After the light goes out it seems for no apparent reason, it will do the same thing. Thing is, this is not all the time, it seems to do it once in a while, no warning, then stop just as fast. I have checked the brake fluid, it is topped up. Checked front and rear brakes, all seem fine with lots of pad left in the front, and plenty of shoe left in the rear. Cleaned the ABS sensors with an old toothbrush, checked wiring. I am ready to lose my mind. I removed the # 33 fuse from the fuse panel inside the van, to disable the ABS system, which it does however, it also for some strange reason disables the power windows. Not on that fuse according to the manual but???? My question is how do I disable the ABS system and still maintain all the other functions the van has? Can I remove the wiring harness plug from the ABS "box" under the hood? or will this make things even worse? I really don't want to start replacing parts willy nilly and can't afford to replace all the brake hardware and ABS sensors, and master cylinder, etc. There has to be a way to disarm the system even if the ABS light stays lit on the dash. As long as I can stop the van effectively without everyone staring at me in the parking lot when the van makes the ABS "noise" when I park. Please help!!! :cry: :cry: :cry:

[jgate]

Sounds like you might have a cracked or corroded exciter ring.
Fuse 33 is connected to the DRL.
what you might want to try is to pull fuse "l" it is a 60 amp fuse that just lists the ABS power source.[attachment=0]

[jgate]

Of course there are a couple of other problems Windstar had with the ABS system
located in the ABS control module.[attachment=1][attachment=0]
Our technicians have taken this control unit apart and re-soldered all the joints and solved the problem.When the ABS heat sink gets warm it stretches the PC board and then the solder joints on the master relay will become loose, making for an erratic operation of this ABS control unit.
Just a few things to think about if you pull the fuse and it does kill other systems. Some module fords use the ABS sensors as a VSS that will cause problems with the trans.