I bought a 2001 ford ranger with 4x4. When i bought it the brakes work then let go. I rebuilt the rear drums as there seemed to be some noise or something coming from there. That didnt fix it. I bled the brakes except the front driver's side caliper which i could not get the bleeder screw open. That didnt do anything either. There were no fluid leaks that i could see. Brake lines didn.t seem bad. Pedal feel seems ok. I am looking to buy new calipers, but they seem ok. Rotors seem to be in good shape. So do the pads. Fluid levels were fine. I'm out of ideas.

 

Welcome to the forum

Not much to go on

Does the brake pedal come back up instantly after taking your foot off?
If there is a delay then that's causing brakes to stick, so failing master or booster(leaking atmosphere valve)
Master has a spring inside as does the booster, these force the pedal back up after pressing it, if either breaks then pedal is slow to return

Yes, replace both front calipers and the Flex brake lines connected to each
When doing the work but before removing the tire, spin the wheel, with engine running, have a helper apply the brakes, and then tell you, ASAP, when brake pedal is released so you can spin the wheel again, repeat, you are trying to see if that caliper is sticking, so the problem

You can also have someone pump the brake pedal a few times, then open the bleeder OR loosen brake line on that caliper, to see if there is still pressure at that wheel
When foot is off the brake pedal there is 0 pressure in ALL the brake lines, so if there is a squirt of fluid then pressure remained in that caliper, usually from a bad flex hose, they break internally and act as a valve to hold pressure


Brakes will gravity bleed
So open master reservoir and top it up, leave cap off
Open bleeder on new caliper, and wait, fluid will run "downhill" from master to the caliper, filling the new hose and caliper, may take a minute or two
Have a helper to "power bleed" a last time to make sure all the air is out
The reservoir never has pressure inside so cap can stay off for this, just be sure to keep it topped up so it never runs dry

 

Thank you for the info. Sounds like I have some stuff to try. I got the new caliper on with new pads. Didn't seem to do much. More investigating to do

 

Ron,

Your info was extremely helpful. I replaced the calipers and decided to do the bearings while i was there. I then exploded the bearings, but thats another story. Either way. It was the #$%@ abs sensors. I replaced all of them and now it stops great.

I need to bleed them again. I F'ed that up trying to self bleed

 

Good work

Thanks for posting THE FIX