Milano ABS Pump Before & After Pics

[Alfaone]

I can´t answer you about the GM accumulator (In mine I used one from Renault), but if the red light is on and if you can hear the accumulator working all the time, it means that the pressure is low, and that is making work the accumulator all the time. At the moment you start to run the car, if the accumulator is in good shape, it works few seconds, but if it works much time, or after breaking few times, it starts to work non stop, I could tell you this is the problem. Much easier, when you start to run the engine,, put your hand over the accumulator, and put your hand over it, and you will can notice if it stops working or it is working for a long time. (be sure the fluid level is OK or take a look if the car drips fluid, cause if you are driping fluid, that makes work the accumulator all the time).

[nizam]

Grant, if you know your pump is good, you can just buy the GM accumulator which WILL work on your stock pump. That very same accumulator is used widely across cars from that era.

[Potenziato]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grant I have a good pump but a bad accumulator. Can I use the GM accumulator on my stock pump? Could this problem be causing the ABS light to be going on? Sorry if this has been answered before.

[AR4me]

If sensors have been verified at approximately 1100 ohms (measure at the big connector at the ABS control unit in the trunk to verify conductivity all the way to the control unit - pin info available in the manual) and you still get orange AL light and red light at startup with a good pump and accumulator then my money is on the pressure switch - easy to check. The manual has step by step checks of the components, where many can be carried out with a simple multimeter without the AR test equipment. I've had the pressure switch go bad.
Jes

[Grant]

I think my problem is as Louis described. The orange ABS light only goes on when I'm holding the brake.

I'm pretty excited about my Verde because I registered it finally and have been running around today in the hills with a red tag. Before this, I've only moved the car around my driveway and around the block. Just thought I'd share!

[desmofan]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but it seems that folks are close to answering my issue. With my Verde, the accumulator pumps up on startup and then the pump stops. The ABS light stays on constantly. Braking seems decent, but if I sit at a light with the brakes on, the pedal slowly loses it's firmness, and the brakes start to loosen. Also, if I brake VERY hard the pedal will go pretty much to the floor, although the brakes will still work. Any ideas of what the problem may be or how to troubleshoot it? thanks!

Scott

[Grant]

Scary thought, but on my non-ABS Milano, that was due to a faulty master cylinder. Hopefully that's not the case as the ABS unit looks expensive and hard to extract.

[AR4me]

Scott,
You might have more than one issue.
Did you do any trouble shooting regarding the constantly lit AL light? The first place to check is the wheel speed sensors. Measure and verify that they are approximately 1100 ohms.

The dropping pedal is probably a different issue.

A general check of the condition of the pump and accumulator is to check how many times you can depress the brake pedal before the pump comes on again. Typically, the old tired units come on every single time you touch the pedal. A new unit is probably about every 7 times or so if you just rapidly press the pedal one time after another.
Jes

[kredden]

I've got a Verde that the PO replaced the ABS with the standard set up. I've got most of the part from that (they were in the trunk when I bought it) as well as a complete setup from a Platinum I parted out and have been toying with the idea of converting it back, now that I've finally got it back on the road I can't just leave well enough alone! How hard a job would this be and are there any bench tests I can run on the components to verify whether they are good or not?

Thanks,
Kevin

[desmofan]

Thanks guys! From my past experience with older cars, I thought that the softeening pedal was due ro faulty seals in the master cylinder, but didn't know if there was something different with the ABS system. I'll check the resistanced of teh sensors and see if that's the culprit for the ABS light. Thanks again!

Scott

[slyalfa]

if the ABS pump goes the pedal gets rock hard. if you have never driven a non-power break car you will likly crash. the power needed on the pedal is a lot so much that you pull up on the stering wheel. the softeening pedal sound like seals to me. I had the happen and I just changed the master with a used one and that was that. I still have the old one. but I did not find a seal kit for the master last time I looked.
if the accumulator is all the way bad when you hit the breaks the pedel will be hard and you will feel the pump kick on and the pedel pump up and the breaks will come on slow. the light will flick on and flick off very fast any time you change the pedal force and the light and motor will kick on and off

the yellow ABS will stay on with almost any fault and as a rule need to have the key switched off and on to reset it

[jrowan]

I have some additional info on the GM pump swap that hopefully may be useful to someone.

Regarding pricing, I spent a couple of hours searching the web for the best prices. Here are some of the prices I found for the pump + accumulator + shipping to 95112
-gmpartsdirect $616 (122 for shipping!)
-oehq.com $548
-ac-direct.com $438
-gm dealers were about $800
-rebuilt pumps from various sources were about $250 + shipping

I purchased mine from ac-direct without issue.

Regarding the pressure switch that comes with the pump, I wanted to use the new gm one since my old one was suspect. I went to the local junk yard and found a late 80s cadillac with abs and cut off the pressure switch connector. I then went to the library and found a wiring diagram for this cadillac to figure out how to splice in the new gm connector to my old harness. Here is the wiring info:

---alfa wire color---alfa pin #---cadillac wire color---cadillac pin #---
-------Black----------1-------------Black--------------D-----------
----Orange/Black-----2-----------Tan/White------------B----------
--Light Blue/Yellow----3-----------Blue/Black------------E----------
---Yellow/Red---------4-----------Gray/Red------------A-----------
----Purple/Black-------5------------Purple--------------C-----------

The alfa pin numbers are from the wiring diagram (they are not labeled on the pressure switch). The Cadillac pin numbers are from the wiring diagram and they are also labeled on the pressure switch.

By the way, in the junkyard I discovered a Pontiac 6000STE with ABS which appears to have the same pressure switch connector as on the Alfa. Ordering the Pontiac 6000 pump instead of the Buick Reatta pump may be an easier way to go. There were also lots of Saabs and Lincolns with similar pumps.

All the other pertinent info is elsewhere in this thread. I completed my pump swap with no issues and I'm impressed with how much better the new pump builds up pressure than my old (yet functional) pump did.

Jason
San Jose, CA

[Grant]

My Buick pump should be arriving tomorrow, just 3 days away from our track event at Infinion..

So, are they any tips or special precaussions I should take when changing ou tthe ABS pump? I'd really like to get this thing working the first time. Do I need to change the positioning or mounting of the ABS pump?

I ordered my pump from dynatech for about $305 after a 75 dollar deposit is returned to me. The surprising thing is the guy there says that he can rebuild Alfa Milano pumps. For the sake of time, I ordered a rebuilt buick pump, with a "Ford type" pressure switch that he claims is the same rectangular style as my pump. If that works, I might not have to do any soldering ot get my pressure switch to work.

I'll let you know if this source is a good place to rebuild Alfa Milano pumps. I really help all goes well..

[Potenziato]

I think every thing has been covered. Depending on the type of pump, the plastic nipple may have to be exchanged with the old one. Covered in the beginning of the thread.

I couldn't get my new pump to pressurize until I used a pressure bleader to force fluid into it. Some people seem to have not had this problem.

Grant, if you need any help, give me a ring. I jus had my car teched and will be showing up on Sunday at Infineon.

[Grant]

Ok...so the pump arrived, and the black spray paint on the pump hasn't even finished drying yet...