Chasing pressure issues

[Ozymandias]

Pulsing pedal means the ABS worked as desired.
And doing this on gravel always gives a light feel of skidding because the wheels lock up and release in short order. Gravel is the best place to check for the ABS to work, snow or ice works too but more dangerous. The dash light doesn't come on in this situation, so the only indictator is the pulsating pedal.

But the inconsistent pedal needs to be investigated, that's not right at all.

Also, just in short, if you would have an airbubble within the ABS unit and then activating the ABS by an emergency braking - the air moves from the unit to the brake line, means it needs an additional bleed afterwards.
A good shop can avoid this by bleeding the unit right away by means of witech, drbIII or another workshop computer.

So, I'd say you need the system to be proper bleed, I hope they bench bleed the master cylinder before installing it.
Because everything you say points me to a not properly bleed system.

 

[petersonj]

Cause I tried getting up to 60mph and then I slammed the pedal and abs never activated. Felt truck just skid with pulsing in the brake pedal

If you had a pulsing brake pedal, the ABS did activate. You just thought the ABS didn't activate because you felt the truck skid. ABS braking works well on HARD surfaces (pavement- wet or dry), snowpack, ice, etc. ABS braking works poorly on LOOSE surfaces - like a gravel road - because the loose gravel easily gets pushed around during braking and the tire has difficulty regaining traction when the ABS releases. The delayed reactions of a tire breaking and making traction interfere with cycling of the ABS, thus braking is not as effective on a loose surface versus a hard surface.

- John

 

[Randomrunner12]

Ozy,

Thank you for this explanation, so the ABS does seem to be working. I have since taken my truck to another shop (Drivers Edge- been using them for years with other stuff and never a bad experience) to get the system bled and have them do a once over and see what's going on. I should hear something back on Monday. I and my father are in the same assumption as you as the system wasn't bleed properly but who knows.

Petersonj, thank you as well for your response and helping me to better understand how the ABS system in these older trucks work. My 4th gen 2500 and wifes 4th gen 1500 both will/would flash the ABS light when on wet roads or less the dry surface so I just assumed the 3rd gens would do it as well. I know I know newer and slightly different setups but just what I thought.

 

[Ozymandias]

Isn't it the Traction Control light that flashes? A.k.a. ESP.

 

[Randomrunner12]

You know what you’re right!!!! I’m thinking 2 different systems.