bypassing abs on 96 windstar with a 3.0

[Rotorman]

Sick of seeing amber abs light on dashboard. Light is intermittent I believe this a soft code iniatally. Replaced RF sensor that was read by scanner at
Mienakie to no avail. Greased rear wheel bearings and adjusted, also cleaned up rear wheel sensors from inside the brake drum to no avail. Abs light comes on and off still. Now enough is enough . I going to bypass the Abs system.
My plan is to replace the master cylinder and power booster only because its 10 yrs old. Attach new 3/16" brake lines in a diagonal pattern. RF to LR and LF to RR and split them before the propotioning valve.. ONly issue I have is the abs light which will be on has no effect on my yearly MA. inspection. Then I remove the 2 piece abs unit from under the battery tray. Has anyone out there perform this type surgery. I'm only considering this project due to the high cost of replacing the HCU since there are known to leak and fail at this age.

[Doug360]

You could just pull the bulb from the instrument cluster. If I remember correctly, when you pull the connector from the ABS brains the brake light will come on as well as the ABS light. So you may have to deal with another light.

[Rotorman]

Originally Posted by Doug360

You could just pull the bulb from the instrument cluster. If I remember correctly, when you pull the connector from the ABS brains the brake light will come on as well as the ABS light. So you may have to deal with another light.

Thanks for the reply Doug360, But what do you do with HCU, That in time will develope a leak around dust box that contains the unit with its solenoids
and master cylinder. My idea was to rework the plumbing and devise some type of dummy male plug to fool the computer thinking its still working. But I have'nt come across an schematics for I believe Teves mark IV abs unit.
For all intensive purposes replacing it can be Costly especially thru the dealership or thru SIA electronics, and the other issue would be turning on the pumps in the HCU to facilatate the bleeding process once you disassemble the unit. My delama and everyone else's owning a vehicle with abs.

[sreve]

when you have an active abs code you have standard braking.
as doug360 said pull the bulb if the light bothers you. i like abs it's saved my dumb ass more than once.
re-engineering the brake system is a bad idea and will be labor intensive. the criss- cross system won't work, you will have rear wheel lock up on moderate braking.
replacing the hcu when it actually does leak with a donor from the local pick and pull salvage yard is what i would do.
often abs codes rear there ugly heads after a rotor replacement.

[Rotorman]

Originally Posted by sreve

when you have an active abs code you have standard braking.
as doug360 said pull the bulb if the light bothers you. i like abs it's saved my dumb ass more than once.
re-engineering the brake system is a bad idea and will be labor intensive. the criss- cross system won't work, you will have rear wheel lock up on moderate braking.
replacing the hcu when it actually does leak with a donor from the local pick and pull salvage yard is what i would do.
often abs codes rear there ugly heads after a rotor replacement.

Thanks for the input sreve, I did replace the rotors and pads on the front wheels 650 miles ago. The abs light does night come on as much as a few hundred miles ago. As for replacement of the abs unit from the bone yard. It doesn't make sense to replace an abs unit from another 96 windstar which was junked, which is just as much rusted as the one I have. Hence my project of re-plumbing the brake lines with a proportioning valve installed after a tee on a frame. This would solve a leaky
abs unit and all the headaches associated with this system.