brake vacuum pump?

[stroker222]

randomly the other day getting off the freeway pulling a trailer. my brakes became really hard to push, like there was no power brakes. At the same time, the little brake light light came on and stays on. Some times it will go off and the brakes are normal to push agian, then right away they wulk become hard again... My guess it is the vacuum pump.. does this sound correct?

thanks for any info!

[desertford]

How does your steering feel when your truck does that?

[stroker222]

My steering is normal and everything else. Just the brakes.

[desertford]

The reason i ask is because i had my pump give out and it affected the steering also. i would check the brake system, see if there is a leak in the pump lines. usually if the pump goes out, in my encounters, the steering goes with the brakes.

[bigcountrysg]

It could be the brake booster or it could be the mastercylinder. If you lost your brake fluid do to a broken line or hose. Your pedal would most likely become spongey feeling and you would have no brakes. But if the mastercylinder is locking up it will cause this problem. Also if the brake booster is going bad it may cause this problem.

[squeeks]

i had the same problem with my truck two weeks ago, brakes hard to push, sometimes check brakes light would come on. The vacum pump on my truck never effected the steering. Maybe on the newer trucks it does, but didnt on mine. 128 bucks for a new vacum pump and 45 minutes later everything worked great.

[stroker222]

Is this what it is? its the cheapest thing to try
eBay Motors: 94 95 96 FORD TRUCK F250 F350 F450 7.3 VACUUM PUMP NEW (item 170126611425 end time Jul-29-07 08:59:16 PDT)

[squeeks]

Yeah i got mine from a local parts store, you have to have a special puller to get the pulley of the old one and to install on the new one. Cuz the pulley is just pressed on there. I believe its the same puller for the power steering pulley. My friends dad owns a shop i had him pop the old pulley off and reinstall the new one.

[BradJ]

yep..its the vacuum pump....mine did exactly the same thing. Replace the pump and it will be fixed.

Brad

[Sam Burton]

if you want a quick and easy check, pull the line from the booster and start the truck there should be vaccum there. pump does sound like your problem tho, i had mine go a couple months ago and it did what you are explaining.