disconnect 97 Blazer ABS system

I have a 97 Blazer, and the ABS light has been going on and off for the last 2 months. When the light is on, the ABS does not work. But sometimes the light goes off, and the brake pedal gets very hard to push and the braking is very hard and dangerous.

I have realized that the ABS system for the 97 blazer is very poor (to be polite) and prefer having the non ABS brakes.

So I am looking at the simplest way to disconnect the ABS system. I have tried removing the fuse, but realized that it shares the same fuse as the cruse control. I could rewire it to be one its own.

Any other idea?

Thanks

I can sympathize with that problem. Same thing here. I am used to driving the truck when the ABS light is on. However now its snowing in the ABS light goes off and it starts working at the worst times. i.e. when its very slippery. If you find out how to cripple it let me know too.

Not a smart thing to do guys, your system is designed for ABS and cannot be miraculously switch back to standard brakes.

Has anyone put the effort into actually checking out what the codes are stored?

The code on mine is a Front Right Sensor Malfunction. Escentially its Dirty and same rust has gotten caught up in it. I cleaned it once and the Light stayed off for about a week now its back on and off again. I Personally would have purchased the truck with no ABS system at all if it was an option.

I'm not sure how your insurance companies would react if you were to disable the abs and you were invloved in an accident but if your use was on a farm or to drag race, ect...here's a sight to check out...
http://www.sytyarchives.com/howto/viewarticle.php?article_name=abs_removal.php&dir=drivetrain

The Vehicle speed sensors are the usual culprit of the ABS problems.

A simple cleaning and reinstallation will usually clear it all up.

The 97 blazers are known for there very poor ABS system, check-out any used vehicle magazine.

After driving without ABS for the last 2 months in the snow and ice, it is very clear why. (I suggest you try it for a few days)

I think I rather take my chances with my foot than the ABS system.

But I understand the possible insurance and safety concerns. I had talked to a service guy at GM and he said legally he can't disconnect it.

Thanks guys for you feedback, I might give it another try and clean the sensors.

You guys that want to turn off the ABS system and you even get into a little fender bender had better pray to what ever God you pray to that the person you hit does not get a good lawyer because if they do you will be in deep dog doooo.

You guys that want to turn off the ABS system and you even get into a little fender bender had better pray to what ever God you pray to that the person you hit does not get a good lawyer because if they do you will be in deep dog doooo.

Exactly.

This system is designed for ABS ONLY.

Don't fuck with it, it will kill you or someone else.

You guys that want to turn off the ABS system and you even get into a little fender bender had better pray to what ever God you pray to that the person you hit does not get a good lawyer because if they do you will be in deep dog doooo.

To add a little more to what Fireplug has said. You more than likely get a reduction in your insurance premium for having ABS. I know I do. You would be removing a safety device and there may very well be a clause in your policy that will make it null and void. Here comes that lawyer.

I don't quite agree that it is design for ABS only.

ABS assists your vehicles braking, it does not replace it.

So when that system does not work properly, and GM is too cheap to have a recall, but changes it in the 98 models, you have to ask yourself some questions.

I don't quite agree that it is design for ABS only.

ABS assists your vehicles braking, it does not replace it.

So when that system does not work properly, and GM is too cheap to have a recall, but changes it in the 98 models, you have to ask yourself some questions.

I agree with this statement. If your ABS fails, your Hydraulic brakes still work. The ABS is an Electro-Mechanical assist system. (In a driveway away from any moving traffic, remove the electrical connector to the ABS unit, and see if your truck stops)

I also agree with other posters stating don't screw with it. With all the other weird things going on with these Blazers, who knows what might happen.


Now for some levity, my personal opinion, somehow the ABS is linked to the bad wiper pulse board. While the bad board will not allow the wipers to work when it rains, the ABS senses a wet surface and will not allow the truck to stop. I've had this problem since day 1, The ABS is HIGHLY SENSITIVE.

Look, if the ABS is not functioning properly, you need to have it looked at and repaired...this is an enhancement to a safety item.
I highly recommend that you have a professional diagnose the problem...there are too many liability issues involved with operating a vehicle with a know problem or disabled safety system....

ABS has been proven to reduce the stopping distance in panic stops, it prevents the tires from looking up and loosing traction..there is no way, you as a driver can do a better job



Now for some levity, my personal opinion, somehow the ABS is linked to the bad wiper pulse board. While the bad board will not allow the wipers to work when it rains, the ABS senses a wet surface and will not allow the truck to stop. I've had this problem since day 1, The ABS is HIGHLY SENSITIVE
BULLSHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!
These two systems are seperate and share nothing in common with the operating systems.
ABS only sees that a tires speed is different than the rest (indicating a skid) and activates the system...it does not sense weather conditions only wheel speed and brake apply

I love the conspiracy theories

I thought the same thing as you, that it is an enhancement to the braking and "should do a better job".

That is until the system stopped working and I went back to the good old fashion braking. I can definitely do a better job! I know what is in front of me and how far away it is, as well as what the surface under my tires is. The system will definitely help most people, who have no idea of how to pump the brakes manually in emergency situations.

As I previously posted, try it for a few days, I am sure you will agree.

Maybe the system on other vehicle or the newer Blazers is better? But I am very unimpressed with mine.

Sea , I'm sure you can cycle the brake pedal 50-60 times a second.

Only a moron will think that he can brake better that an ABS system.

I thought the same thing as you, that it is an enhancement to the braking and "should do a better job".

That is until the system stopped working and I went back to the good old fashion braking. I can definitely do a better job! I know what is in front of me and how far away it is, as well as what the surface under my tires is. The system will definitely help most people, who have no idea of how to pump the brakes manually in emergency situations.

As I previously posted, try it for a few days, I am sure you will agree.

Maybe the system on other vehicle or the newer Blazers is better? But I am very unimpressed with mine.

I have seen tests with professional drivers vs. ABS stops and the ABS system stopped the vehicle faster..
I don't believe for a minute you can do a better job..you may be more aware and try to avoid situations that ABS may be needed...but I did not come on here to debate...
The fact of the matter is if the system is not working properly, you need to have a professional that is trained on how to diagnose and repair the system look at it and determine what is the culprit...
Until then, you are driving an unsafe vehicle.

Thanks for the back up Guys!!
I did not want to start a war over this. I just dont want to see someone get hurt because they are messing with a system on there trucks/cars that they know nothing about.
For all you guys that have worked on GM ABS You remember all the J-Body ABS motor problems.

Yea, I agree that the ABS braking system is very unreliable at times. The biggest problem i see is when I encounter a slick surface on one side of the vehicle. The abs kicks in and it takes the car 10 feet to top, versus maybe two or three if the abs had not engaged. This is a very dangerous especially when driving on roads that have just been plowed and the shoulders are still slick. My Rodeo and Infiniti dont have these problems. However; I do agree that in a higher-speed emergency "pedal to the floor" braking situation, the abs helps greatly. In all other situations I would prefer not to have it.

I actually had a rather serious accident in a '96 S-10 that I believe may have been avoided if the ABS had not come on and increased the stopping distance. There were no system faults indicated at the time... the ABS on that truck was just too stupid BY DESIGN to realize that a small bump under one tire doesn't mean you should drop the brake pressure as though the world has turned to ice. GM acknowledged this on a great number of trucks and SUVs and had a recall to update the software. Still, I would not advise disabling the system; I think the situations where braking performance is improved by ABS are way more common than the opposite. Even though the ABS was a complicating factor, the more significant cause of my accident was stupid driving.

Disconnecting it is a bad idea. ABS in itself is a very good safety feature. BUT, to be fair, the ABS system from the early to mid ninties, on GM cars and trucks(including these trucks) was not the best design. The system especially used on these trucks was mediocore at best. Do you remember the safety recall issued on replacing/recalibrating ABS functions on many mid '90s trucks? Do a search on the NHSTA website, recall numbers 99I006000 and 99V193000 I personally think ABS is good, just a bad system on these trucks. No person can pulse the brakes as fast as the ABS system, but a good driver can have good results with a non ABS vehicle. But I guess everyone on here considers themselves a 'good' driver. To each their own. The best system developed that relates to ABS is Electronic Stability Control (ESC), this system, along with ABS, really does work in crash avoidance, but our trucks never had such an option avaliable. All in all, keep the sysem connected, and make sure it works, its apart of the design of the vehicle.

WAKE UP GUYS!

ABS is not there to help you stop, it is there to allow you to still turn while braking.

So please stop with the ABS caused my accident crap, and saying you can stop better without it because as good as a driver as you are, you cannot pump the pedal as fast to control your vehicle than a computerized valve system can do.

Agree 100%. As poorly engineered as the S-10 ABS was, I kept it enabled because I knew it was better than me for maintaining control and keeping the tailgate behind me.

I know that I am chiming in late in this discussion, but I recently had some REALLY wierd problems with my ABS on my 97 Blazer that I bought new and has about 250K miles on it.
The brake pedal was randomly going to the floor, with the ABS light coming on and off, and sometimes the brake light coming on too. The ABS motor was turning on every time I stopped. Scary to drive because the brakes would work really well, and then not at all. I read a lot of forums and the problem seemed to be the ABS unit itself. So I found one on eBay and replaced it. No help. OK, now what?

Maybe a bad replacement unit? But the ABS light was out now, so maybe not. I talked to an ABS control unit rebuilder and explained the symptoms. He thought the problem was hydraulic because the pedal was going to the floor. Well, I had never replaced the calipers or wheel cylinders, so I did that, along with the pads, rotors, and shoes, which were pretty much worn out as well. And the master cylinder too. Good quality NAPA parts.

Now I had really good braking but still had the wierd symptoms with the pedal randomly going to the floor. Air in the system? OK, we flushed and bled the system 3 times. STILL no help. What did I miss??

Did some more reading, including this forum. OH, maybe a bad ABS speed sensor or a broken wire? OK, I pulled the rotors to clean and check the sensors, like some of you guys said. Yeah, good idea. When I pulled the rotors, you will NOT believe what I found.

Yeah, this sounds crazy. Almost could not believe it myself. There are three large bolts that hold the bearing assembly to the brackets on each of the front wheels. These bolts also hold the backing plate with the ABS sensor on it in place. All three bolts on the right front wheel were LOOSE and the backing plate was at an angle instead of being parallel with the wheel. The ABS sensor had been rubbng on the speed ring and was generating all kinds of wierd signals which were driving the ABS controller crazy. Yeah, and me too. :frown:

How I missed that when I replaced the caliper and pads on that wheel, I will never know. As soon as I tightened the bolts (and torqued them to spec) all the ABS problems disappeared instantly. No red lights, high pedal, and the brakes really work well now. Well, after replacing almost the entire brake system, they ought to. Have not replaced the sensor and ring on that wheel yet, but parts are on order.

Lesson learned: If your ABS is going nuts, check the sensors before you disconnect or replace the ABS unit. It's just a computer and it only does what the sensors tell it to do. The interesting part is that you can get the sensors at any auto parts store but not the ABS unit. Wny? Because stores stock what they know they can sell. The sensors go bad and they sell. I'm guessing that the ABS units don't sell much, so maybe they don't go bad a lot.

Anyway, thanks to all you guys for pointing me in the right direction. :smooch:

Hugs.
Skypilot. Yes, I am am pilot - and (surprise) female. I bet you were not expecting that. LOL

I had a fairly similar experience on my dad's 1997 S-10 with 4WD. His ABS seemed to only act up when he was in 4WD. Of course, here in Iowa, when you need 4WD, it's often a time when ABS would be most beneficial. On his truck, "act up" meant the ABS seemed to release the brakes when nearly to a stop.

Last Fall we heard a bad bearing in the front so I ordered a new wheel bearing assembly to replace it. The bolts were not loose on his, but the following Winter there were no ABS issues like the past several winters. The bearing was not noticeably loose, even with the wheel installed and off the ground. We only replaced it due to the noise it was making, but apparently it was loose enough to cause a similar issue to your bearing assembly that had loose mounting bolts.

-Rod

Hi Rod,

Yep, a loose bearing will do it. The GM clearance spec between the reluctor (the gearlike toothed ring that is mounted on the axle or rotor) and the sensor itself is .45mm to 1.25 mm. That's about 1/32 to 1/16 inch. Anything outside that will generate wrong electrical pulses that go to the ABS controller. Pulses that are too long or too short or missinig or random give wrong information to the ABS controller and it reacts by turning on at the wrong times. There is a good explanation of this at
http://www.brakeandfrontend.com/wheel-speed-sensors-abs-and-tcs-signal-use/

BTW, in 97 Blazers, the reluctor ring on a 97 Blazer is machined into the wheel bearing assembly. So when you replaced the wheel beari[ng asembly, you also replaced the reluctor ring with a nice shiny, sharp new one.. I'm sure that helped a lot.

As computers go, the ABS controller is pretty tame. It has just enough programming to detect the signals and react. What it -should-do is turn the ABS light on whenever the pusles are wrong. Instead, it generates DTCs that you have to check with a scan tool or a laptop and a plug that hooks the laptop to the OBDII plug. BTW, that is what I use. The plug and softtware cost me only $250. It paid for it self the first time I used it. Any time you get a check engi[ne light, it displays the DTCs and tells you exactly what is wrong. www.autoenginuity.com.

BTW, my Blazer had exactly the same symptoms as your dads. The pump would turn on when I was alomst stopped and would not turn off until I released the brake and then braked again.

The biggest problem with the sensors is that because it they are magnetic, they attract metal shavings from metallic brake pads or shoes. When enough shavings are piled up around the magnet, the sensor no longer generates a big enough pulse and the ABS does not work right. Simple solution: Clean the sensors on all the wheels every few months. Wash all the dirt and metal particles off both the sensor and the reluctor (speed ring) and blow dry with compressed air. Depending on the installation, you might have to pull the rotor off to get at the speed sensor.

BTW, some guys might wonder how come a woman knows all this stuff. Well, I am a mechanical engineer and a long time ago, I used to work for GM. :-)

Cheers,
Diane (skypilot)

Checkout NTSB investigation EA94-038 noting 10,000 complaints, 2000 accidents, 600 injuries. Chevrolet Safety campaign 99I006000 addressing a PCM coding change and replacing the Kelsey Hayes ABS actuator unit.

Chevrolet at 800-222-1020 declines to honor it 20 years later.

My 1996 Chev Blazer exhibited the symptom on slushy roads last winter, just about totaled a Tesla. Then a guy I work with stated that his Suburban of the same era would do the same thing, extended stopping distance. Followed my neighbor down a hill in his brand new 2013 Chev pickup years ago, and watched it roll right through an intersection on slushy roads, my Explorer stopped without issue. Back in the 1980's had a Chev Skylark, back then their idea of antilock brakes was a shock absorber mounted on the back of the break pedal to "dampen' the application of the break pedal, yup, rear ended a car because of that. Tested stopping distances between that car and a Chev Malibu before antilock stuff was around, the Malibu stopped way shorter. What's up with these GM engineers, deals with the collision shops?

Then 1996 Chevrolet Blazer Recall NHTSA 99I006000. Although not a safety recall

VEHICLE DESCRIPTION: CERTAIN 4-WHEEL DRIVE PICKUP TRUCKS AND SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH ABS (ANTILOCK BRAKING SYSTEM) MANUFACTURED FROM SEPTEMBER 1989 THROUGH AUGUST 1996. UNDER CERTAIN DRIVING CONDITIONS THE SWITCH WHICH SIGNALS THE ABS SYSTEM WHETHER THE VEHICLE IS IN 2-WHEEL OR 4-WHEEL DRIVE CAN MALFUNCTION CAUSING INCREASED STOPPING DISTANCES DURING ABS STOPS WHILE IN THE TWO-WHEEL DRIVE MODE.

Remedy
DEALERS WILL REPLACE OR REPAIR THE 4-WHEEL/2-WHEEL DRIVE SWITCH.