The other day i pulled the brake out and the light stayed on. The abs light was on when i bought the truck and instead of changing the rear sensor i pulled the bulb. What are the most common reasons the brake light would stay on?.

Im not sure why i even put the parking brake on because it does nothing. Need to learn how to work on the rear brakes on this thing. My truck stops great because i have nice rebuilt and new front calipers and pads.

Thanks in advance for any ideas guys.

 

well 3 years ago before I bought my friends 1995 CTD with the same Dana 70 as yours the brake and abs lights came on seconds after doing a brake stand at a traffic light to pull a holeshot on some ricer, days later noticed howeling coming from the rear end when flying down the freeway- few weeks later I found oil all over the tailgate with a large hole in the diff cover- see video of broken abs parts (the sensor was fine) on the ring gear!
I have since seen 3 CTD's destroy the pinion just like mine did. Logger friends of mine say never to past half throttle at low speeds with the dana 70's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhKhzvb9Ax4

 

If the parking brake light stays on, when the parking brake disengaged, then the ABS light, if it had a bulb, would be on also. This signals a problem with the ABS system, even if you only have rear wheel ABS (as opposed to 4 wheel ABS). You need to have someone who can check the codes in that part of the computer system check it and see what it thinks is wrong, and follow proper troubleshooting procedures from there.
Unfortunately I have never heard of any sure-fire thing that's wrong when those lights come on. It could be several different problems.

Chris

 

If you pull the ABS fuse it does just that. Might have no power to ABS module or wire bad or maybe just the module plug came loose. The module is behind and above the air bag unit you can see outside the dash. Pull the bolster under the steering wheel and look to the center over the hump. It is mounted to structure with a plug in harness.

 

Forgot to say, mine has been disconnected for quite a while. I don't like nor trust the ABS in mine. If you take the plug off the lights should go off.

 

If you put the e-brake on, and the light stayed on after you disengaged the e-brake? It's more than likely just the switch on the e-brake mechanism.
Stick your head down there and find a small white piece of plastic. Play with it, figure out how it works, and see if you can make the light in the dash go off.

 

copy and past from the common problems thread

If your ABS light and brake light come on, in most cases it's probably your Rear Wheel Speed Sensor (RWSS). This sensor is on top of the rear differential.

This sensor is controlled by a "exciter ring" that is interupted by the teeth on the ring sending a variable voltage signal to the computer depending on vehicle speed. small metal shavings can cause it to fail over time. The most common symptoms of the switch's failure are bad speedometer readings and tripping the RWAL computer located under the center of the dash.

Other obvious things can also trip the computer such as:

1. bad pads, shoes, calipers, wheel cylinders.

2. bad fuses.

3. poor connections or broken and/or chaffed wire.


Once you have detemined that none of the above exist, you can try a system reset buy pulling the abs fuse and/or pulling negative battery terminals for 30 sec or so.


If the lights come back, the next thing to try is reading the RWAL fault codes.

To read the codes on 96 and older trucks:

1. turn key to the "on" position.

2. for just a second, ground pin # 13 on the diagnostic plug located on the knee bolster (#13 is a black wire, it's the 4th from right bottom row).

watch your ABS/Brake light for codes.

start counting with the first long flash, end with last short flash.

there are only 13 codes.


1. Not used.
2. open isolation valve wiring or bad control module.
3. open dump valve wiring or bad contol module.
4. closed rwal switch.
5. not used 4wd. over 16 dump pulses in 2wd.
6. erratic speed sensor reading. (most common)
7. electronic control module fuse pellet open, isolation output missing, or valve wiring shorted to ground.
8. dump output missing or valve wiring shorted to ground.
9. speed sensor wire resistance/ high reading.
10. speed sensor wire resistance/ low reading.
11. brake switch always on, RWAL light comes on over 40mph.
12. not used.
13. electronic control module phase lock loop failure.
14. electronic control module program check failure.
15. electronic control module RAM falure.