[billy]

Anyone know if I can remove the rear ABS sensor from the hub, without removing the hub bolt and drum? i.e. does the ABS sensor simply attach through a hole to the rear of the hub? Reason I need to know is that I'm changing the hub spacer from standard 3mm to 10mm, and got the 4 bolts out okay, but then realised that the ABS sensor goes through the middle of the spacer. I unscrewed the 8mm bolt from the sensor housing, but it really wasn't keen to go anywhere and I didn't want to knacker the sensor. Any advice?

[HFStuart]

Any advice?

Sadly not, the little aluminium cans that cover the sensor are usually well stuck and when you lever the sensor out they often come out in bits.

I can't remember the exact arrangement but it you cut the wires to the ABS sensor (i'd suggest somewhere on the beam where they're easy to get at later) you might be able to feed the sensor and wires through as you pull the drum off, then feed them back and solder them up when you re-assemble. It's a faf but it might save you £90 for a new pair of sensors. If you do end up with new sensors put a bit of copperease on them before you put them in. Should you need to take them out again they won't be a problem.

BTW the brake back plate is riveted in place. You'll need to drill out the rivets and replace them with M5 bolts or longer rivets when putting it back together.

Good luck

Stuart

[billy]

Thanks Stuart - great advice. I was thinking earlier today about the soldering option being potentially the most controllable - even the thought of easing the sensor out and then watching it break up as it comes is stressful enough! For the sake of slightly better high speed cornering stability, I'm tempted to give the wider spacers a miss. (until the rear brakes or hubs need some serious work) I might have another exploratory wiggle of the sensor tomorrow, since it is not looking too corroded - the process of unscrewing and separating the hub is very straightforward.

[HFStuart]

For the sake of slightly better high speed cornering stability, I'm tempted to give the wider spacers a miss. (until the rear brakes or hubs need some serious work).

The difference with them on isn't that great anyway - I'd agree leave them until you need to replace the brakes shooes.

Stuart

[billy]

I finished the job this weekend and thought I'd close-out this thread with a few quick observations:

After applying penetrating oil, the ABS sensor on the rear hub could be gently tapped from side to side (not much! - only ~1mm each way, tapping on the side near the bolt mounting and pivoting around where it enters the rear drum). But in my opinion, despite this movement, there was simply no way it was going to come out by pulling. You would need a perfectly perpendicular force to remove it and any leverage, such as ramming a screwdriver underneath it, would break the housing in the back of the hub. I read in another post that the best way is to gently drive it out from the inside, using a plastic tube of the correct diameter, but I didn't fancy playing with the rear hub nuts on Sunday! So this was a no-go.

I ended up doing the soldering route: cutting the ABS wire on each side, on the rear beam - easily accessibly in its own plastic trunking (just click off the plastic clips - the round ones attached to the rear beam need to have the central plastic post pushed out first, or you can knacker the plastic mounting). Once passed through the spacer, the cut end of the ABS wire can be routed back to where it was and soldered back to the other cut end. After soldering, insulate each wire with some PVC tape and finish the whole thing with some neat shrink sleeving.

Tip: When cutting back the black PVC outer on the ABS wire, to expose a lenghth of the two wires for soldering, do not cut too deep - after making a small cut in the black outer, you can bend it back on itself, and it splits the rest of the way, revealing the wires inside. If you don't do this and cut deeply, you risk cutting through to the copper on the other wires, which could lead to problems longterm (shorting out, etc). And you don't want to have to strip another section of the wire, because then it'll be too short to go back throught the trunking, and you'll have to solder in another section of wire and frankly it all gets a bit messy...

With the original 3mm spacer, in order to remove it, you need to hack-saw the head off the central rivet holding it in place, and then lever the old spacer off gently with a screwdriver - it pings off as the cut rivet releases. I see no need to replace the rivets on the new spacer - the fixing bolts do the job - assume the rivets were to aid assembly at Ford production line.

All in, the job took me ~2-hours, but then I was going gently on Sunday morning

And the result?
1. The standard wheels look good in the arches - hardly any difference, but noticeable to me.
2. The ride quality over bumps seems to slightly improved at the rear - slightly less 'busy' (why would this be?).
3. The rear feels slightly more anchored through fast corners on my regular A-roads. Interestingly, I don't get any sense of increased understeer, as another member with the hub spacers noted - the steering/handling does not seem to have changed.

So - a nice little mod, but is it worth it? If you've got the time and enjoy unbolting bits from your car, then maybe, but the overall result is very minimal.

My hub spacers came from an FRP, milled-down to 10mm thickness. I've used M10 x 40mm cap-head fixing bolts (the original spacer was ~3mm, with M10 x 30mm fixing bolts) from a local supplier. But I think you can get the whole kit (spacers and bolts) from Pumaspeed for ~£20 (listed under Fiesta parts).

Will

This post has been edited by billy: 29 September 2008 - 08:39 AM

[poder]

I changed mine also. The originals were 10mm wide, my homemade ones 20mm.
I found it wery easy to tap the abs sensors out from the inside, it is a 5 min job to remove the hubs.

IMO the biggest difference is the looks but those 10mm extra really does the trick.