My truck is a 1997 GMC Sierra SLE 5.7/350

I am having a small brake issue where my pedal seems soft and has a lot of travel. it seems like i'm going almost to the floor. could this be my drums and shoes worn out in the back? also has anyone ever heard tell of having to re-equalize the pressure in the ABS or something? maybe im getting good pressure in the front and not the back...

Another quick question: sometimes ( this has only happened twice so far) while idling and in "Drive" my truck has stalled out and wont restart until it has sat for a couple mins and then has an odd smell after restarting. If i try to start immediately it just turn over and over. fuel pump? fuel filter?

Adjust the rear brakes and the play will most likely go away. Sounds like your ign module might be going out causing the no start issue.

no start i can understand but why the stall?

Never mind your truck is a vortech I was thinking about the TBI motor. I would most likely suspect the crank sensor to cause a stall issue but checking the fuel pressure is a good idea when this occurs.

crank position sensor most likely but when my poppets started leaking it would load up the engine with gas at long lights and stall. there is a mpfi fix for the crap poppets but its alot more expensive than the crank sensor

Just don't stop at red lights JK JK JK!

he cant stop anyway, so what does it matter.

a thought on that, i had to replace the rear lines on my yukon and the abs is very hard to get air out of. if you snug up the adjusters in the rear and its still soft, heres what i did. make sure both adjusters are free, replace or lube with antiseize as needed. then bleed with the key on. then go out to dirt road or someplace you can get the abs to activate and romp on the brakes a few times, then rebleed the brakes. mine came to about 75% at this point. after driving it a while they come back to normal. normal being not as good as any other makers trucks but you shouldnt be able to put it to the firewall

On the brake issue on these p/u'* generally the front pads will wear out before the rear shoes. Not for sure on ABS equipped vehicles, but most front disc/rear drum vehicles have a prop valve (proportioning) to equalize the line pressure front to rear to keep the rear brakes from locking up as discs require more pressure to operate than drums. Just a thought but perhaps if your vehicle is so equipped you may need to bleed or service the prop valve.

2004 Bonne SLE
1971 Chevelle SS

Your right it can be difficult to bleed the ABS without the aid of a scanner that can do a internal bleed of the ABS unit. I would still start with inspecting the rear brakes and adjusting hardware and make sure they are adjusted. More than once I've fixed the low pedal problem on the 88-99 trucks by a simple brake adjustment.

thats why i made it the first step, around here though alot of times they are seized because of the salt and rust so you have to free them up or buy new ones and put a bunch of never seize on it