Ford: 1995 ford windstar shaking when braking

i have a shuddering to the steering wheel and van in general. it is not the
abs kicking in. this happens just as you touch the brake. as you press more
firmly on the brake and almost stop, it becomes less.
the first diagnosis was a ball joint, then when that was replaced, it was
brakes, now i have new pads, shoes, drums, both calipers on the front and
one cylinder on the back, rotors turned. then maybe it was the bearings: i
have new wheel bearings all around with no luck in stopping this shudder. it
is quite disturbing like a mini earth quake. worse at higher speeds. even
with all this brake work my brake peddle seems spongy and low.
there is a squeek from the passenger side that lessens when i apply the
brakes and sounds like it slows and races with the speed of the tires.
now i am told it may be the rear end, or maybe just the spindle on the
passenger side wheel hub.
before i spend any more on this problem, anyone have any input? i am only
the driver, i don't know much about the repairing of vehicles, but if the
steering wheel is shaking, does this not indicate the front of the van has
the problem rather than the back since the steering wheel is connected to
the front wheels?

Hm..... that's intresting. I've heard of (and experienced) warped
rotors....but I never really knew how they got that way. I always hand
torque my lug nuts...and when paying someone else to do anything that
requires them to put the wheels back on.....I tell them to hand torque them.
Now I have even more reason to do so. Hehe....

hey you think with steel wheels vs aluminum.....it'd be more difficult to
have this sort of rotor warping problem? Just out of curiosity.....since I
have steel wheels (not even a minivan...... 83 grand marquis....but
interesting stuff about the brakes)
"C" <net> wrote in message
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