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Has anyone removed the 4WOL ABS system?

Pillow

Pillow

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Warrenton, VA
I hate ABS! The GM version sucks on top of that!

Can I remove this boat anchor 4WOL distributor from the engine bay?

My fear is that there is a proportioning valve in the unit and would throw off the braking bias. Perhaps not.

Thanks!
 
I always unplug mine, on lights or codes. ABS on the back duals when emtpy makes the back end hop off the ground real bad
 
Pillow said:
I hate ABS! The GM version sucks on top of that!

Can I remove this boat anchor 4WOL distributor from the engine bay?

My fear is that there is a proportioning valve in the unit and would throw off the braking bias. Perhaps not.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I know someone that did, he put a new (and HUGE) master cylinder on, removed all the crap off the fender, upgraded...6 piston front calipers and I think 4 piston rears, and yes, I think he did add a proportioning valve in the system. I will try to find what all he did. Also, he had to bend his own lines.
 
I unplugged 3 harnesses on the unit and it deactivates the ABS system without turning on the ABS light.

ABS on this generation stinks. Blow out a rear brake line, and when the ABS tries to compensate the result is ZERO braking. Ask me how i know...


I rear ended my buddies F-550 because my pedal went to the floor, and because of ABS trying to do who knows what, the truck didn't even slow down one bit. Before the ABS did its thing, at least the truck would stop and had pedal.

I literally was doing 25MPH, which coming onto a stopped F-550 box truck, is actually very fast. Pushed him forward 4-5 feet, fortunately he didn't hit the cars in front of him. Imagine if he wasn't there? I would have taken out 4-5 cars!

FWIW, the rear brake line blew because we chained our trucks together, and did a pull-off in the gravel! It was a tie, lack of traction for both of us, 4-low vs 2wd Loaded boxtruck 550. :) A rock must have bounced up and took out a rusty line :)

Limping it on the way home is when ABS caused the accident.

Good ol' drinkin days........... I don't miss em one bit.
 
QUOTE=GM Guy;162419]but you still refer to them as good ol', so they must have been great.[/QUOTE]

:cheers2:

Indeed they were :) THe problem was it turned into an all day event, and eventually ended up being more of a job than a means to enjoy.


:chillpill::grin:
 
Normally the proportioning valve is part of the combination valve and is seperate from the ABS unit.

You should be able to make jumper lines and connect the existing lines together so the all go to the proper spots.

I too hate the ABS systems on these rigs.

Just a real POS.

Not worth the powder to blow it to hell.

Idea was great but unfortunately the application sucks. You cant't allow a machine with very limited input to control such a dynamic situation as braking.

MGW
 
LOL Matt you are killin me, kinda sad but kinda hilarious at the same time :)

Missy, you speak such truth and elegance.

Thanks, I will see what I can do to relieve the weight burden of this damn 4WOL box. Brakes lines hopefully are not though to acquire in the right lengths and ends.
 
Just make up some brake lines and toss it. Just be aware that if you are involved in an accident you could be liable for removing it even if it wasnt your fault where as keeping it and unplugging it , well it could be plugged back in pretty fast. Again long shot at best. The system sucks bigtime. I unplugged mine and never looked back. Truck stopped better and was safer. I want to unplug it i the municipal truck I drive but same reasons I didn't totally remove it, I won't tamper with that one but many times I have hit the brakes in that truck and it felt like I had none.
 
After looking over this I see that it might be a good idea to disconnect my ABS? Here's the problem I've run in to...I leave work one evening and I see a green puddle under my truck. Look at the rear of the drum and there is fluid traces out of the adjustment hole. Pop the hood and find the front half of the brake resevoir empty and the rear nearly empty. I fill the resevoir and my brakes only have pressure the last 1/4 before hitting the floor (thank goodness for a manual). I make it to NTB where they mounted my new tires and drove my truck with the e-brake on. I drive it home (w/ the e-brake off) and my brakes are normal again (even tighter). I change my bearings and oil seal in that wheel and cleaned and dried that side brakes. I have extremely tight braking now, haven't lost any more fluid, but when applying my brakes at any speed, it feels like my rearend wants to come around and meet me up front. Would this be ABS's fault?

(didn't mean to steal this thread - thought it was along the same lines)
 
mine are grabby during hard braking learned the hard way it was wet and did panic stop rear tires locked up and was goin sideways kinda scary
 
Well this is all interesting, my diesels are too old to have it but my 95 gasser has 4 wheel abs and for some reason it works really good ?
 
Methinks the ABS was only designed for the gassers, and added to the diesels after insufficient tweaking. Corporate GM has been known to cut a few corners, as we know.
PMD, OPS, Vac boost control all being a few examples of our personal GM gremlins. With just a little dew on the road, sliding a loaded suburban with the ABS effectively preventing my brakes from working is one big scary thing I don't want to do again.
ABS didn't work too good in my wife's '96 1500 gasser 'burb. She totalled it out. Scared me AND the dog. She did all the right things with the steers, the ABS just wasn't up to it.
 
Matt Bachand said:
Are your drums still soaked with brake fluid?
Click to expand...


thats the thing - after that one instance I haven't lost a bit of brake fluid (that I can tell anyways)...so I'm wondering if I simply had a bad oil seal and that the liquid coating I had on my brakes was just differential fluid. If that's the case, then I haven't a clue why my brake resevoir was nearly empty.

Also - when you guys disconnect the ABS - do you disconnect it at the wheel bearings, or somewhere else?
 
Just kidding - I just went out to my truck and I saw more green fluid sitting under that tire and the brake fluid low - very low. Looks like I might want to change my brake cylinder in that wheel soon...shoot.
 
I changed my brake cylinder and fixed the leaking problem (sorry for veering off subject). Do you guys disconnect the ABS in the engine bay at the ABS controller? If so - are you pulling out the wiring between the truck and the controller or the controller and the wheels? Or do you pull the wiring from each of the wheels?
 
IIRC, just unplug all the plugs at the ABS controller under the hood (the {cluster f**k} cast aluminum box with all the brake line spagetti right in front of the master cyl).
I think there's 3 plugs. Don't do it while it's turned on.

This is to be construed as only an opinion, not leaving the writer liable for anything whatsoever in this world. The next world, that's another story...I reserve the right to be wrong):h
 
dangerousdave said:
IIRC, just unplug all the plugs at the ABS controller under the hood (the {cluster f**k} cast aluminum box with all the brake line spagetti right in front of the master cyl).
I think there's 3 plugs. Don't do it while it's turned on.

This is to be construed as only an opinion, not leaving the writer liable for anything whatsoever in this world. The next world, that's another story...I reserve the right to be wrong):h
Click to expand...

haha - alright - thank you! (Do all your responses come with the warning at the bottom?)
 
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