ABS + old truck?

[botboy]

Just curious if there are anybody on these forums that has done an ABS retrofit onto a '72 or older truck...I've wanted to do that for a long time, maybe I'll get my chance with the '68 I'm going to look at this weekend.

[Dave Reed]

When I was in GM school I asked my professor about adding ABS to older vehicles. You would need the spindles, sensors, computer, brake master, etc .. to make it all work. I have thought about it, but it would be a serious project.

[Big69C20 Toy]

Umm well if you're in a good spot with some ABS company and know a lot about the systems, go ahead.... should be one heck of an adventure. some current production trucks still only use RWAL (rear wheel anti-lock) and those are the 'bottom' line systems basically. You've got to have some sort of wheel speed sensing device, coupled to a computer system to read it, coupled on top of that to some abs servos and controllers... all in all it aint an easy task to say the least. the systems themselves comprise of many parts all computer integrated... so you better be good at running computer codes and profiles for things...

Dont mean to be scary but it aint no fun proposition i can say that much. It would be a nice thing to add to an older truck, but not simple by most means if you mean a good reliable system...
Good luck either way,

[botboy]

Originally Posted by Big69C20 Toy

Umm well if you're in a good spot with some ABS company and know a lot about the systems, go ahead.... should be one heck of an adventure. some current production trucks still only use RWAL (rear wheel anti-lock) and those are the 'bottom' line systems basically.

I had a '90 dakota setup like this, real real cheap - had a hall effect that fit into the top of the differential, had a toothed ring that went around the rear carrier and would apply the ABS system when there was a big difference between front wheel abs speeds and rear I guess.

The trucks I was considering using the system out of would be an OBS truck ('88-98) since I already have a descent amount of experience playing with the computers on them (retrofitted a full TBI setup onto my '72 out of an '89 burb, did all the wiring myself) AND on that body style of trucks the BCM (body control module/abs computer) isn't integrated into the ECM like the newer of GM vehicles. I also know that UpullRparts in minnesota has ABS parts for pennies on the dollar and plenty of OBS trucks. I think that the best course of action would probably be to find an OBS truck, and either find a way to put the spindles, disks and hall effect sensors on a 67-72 bodied truck (which would be pretty hard) along with the one-piece BCM, abs pump, prop valve and master cylinder/booster combo in place of the original 67-72 piece (the easy part). Depending on the fab work necessary it might just be easier to swap the whole front member into the frame of an older truck. I need to find a 2WD OBS truck to look at, I'm not sure how the 88-98 trucks deal with speed sensing on the rear axle side of things (could very well be that they just use the speed sensor off the transmission but thats just speculation).

[botboy]

I also just found a Raybestos 1986-94 General Motors cars, light trucks & vans Anti-Lock Brake Systems Diagnosis & testing manual, 1112 pages, for under $10 on ebay, hopefully it will make for some interesting reading, right now my concern has more to do with paying for the nice '68 C/20 I was looking at over the weekend.