JohanH

Hello all,

Does anyone have tips for fitting a new ABS reluctor ring?
The one I took of with some persuasion has an inner diameter of 80mm and the new one measures 79,5 mm.
I was thinking to heat the new one in the oven to make it expand.

Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Johan

VVTiBob

JohanH

That's it!!

Thanks very much.
Unfortunately I don't have one of those flamethrowers, so let's see how far I'll get with oven / hot air gun combo and brute force. I just had a stainless steel pipe cut to size so I can push the ring evenly onto the shaft.

More fun tomorrow.
Cheers,
Johan

VVTiBob

JohanH

VVTiBob

JohanH

It's easy. One bolt holds the sensor. Might take some persuasion if they've never been out.
Once it's out you see the ring. Also because the sensor is magnetic, if your ring is on the way out, there will be shavings on the sensor.

Cheers,
Johan

JohanH

Job Done!

I put the ring in the oven for 15 min. at 230 C and then heated it up further with an electrical paintstripper / blower which supposedly puts out 500 C.
Then pounded it home using the stainless steel pipe as buffer.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,
Johan

VVTiBob

engin_ear

iTrader: (1)

I just had this exact same problem on my '99 GS400. The hub knuckle cavity rusts gradually behind the dust deflector. this gradually but surely reduces the circumference of the dust deflector, wearing away the reluctor ring in the process. I pulled the rear ABS sensors and a pile of metal shavings came out, stuck to the magnets in the sensors.
I bought remanufactured CV axles with new reluctor rings. Also bought new Febest (aftermarket) dust deflector rings. Will clean the rust out, then install everything.

It's a lousy design. This should never happen. But I see here on CL that a lot of the older cars are suffering from this.

Initial symptom is ABS kicking in at very slow speeds, when the car is coming to a stop. Eventually the ABS shuts down once the rings are so worn it's not getting any intelligible signal.

sbagdon

When it comes to putting pressed fittings back in... there's a youtube video of a guy who froze a wheel bearing to +10F, and oven-heated the hub-carrer to +350F. The bearing fell in to the gap, with a thud.

sbagdon

The COMP pages from the pdf manual doesn't show the ABS sensor as a replaceable part, and the last step of axle shaft disassembly is removing the #2 dust deflector, and the first step of assembly is installing the #2 dust deflector (with no indication of removing the ABS ring). When you replaced the ABS ring, were you using an original axle shaft (or aftermarket?), and did you replace with a Lexus or aftermarket ABS ring?

Thx!

JohanH

I did not follow the manual.
IIRC Lexus does not see the ring itself as a replaceable item. They'd rather sell you a whole new axle.
I removed the ring from the axle and replaced it with an aftermarket one

sbagdon

Thanks much, that explains a lot.

Where did you get the reluctor ring from... are they still available?

Did some digging...
Dorman 917-537 appears to be the medium-duty ring, and appears to fit the RX300.
Dorman 917-552 appears to fit the light-duty ring, such as the Corolla/Matrix/etc.
Dorman 917-554 looks like the light/medium pickups.

Called Dorman, and they do not carry a rear ABS reluctor ring, for the GS400 (or compatible axle shaft). Argh.

Looks like https://www.reluctorrings.com/cars/lexus has part number 48-T-799-96, yet are about $50/per. Looks like replacement axle shafts might be the only option.
Thx!

JohanH

ebay
Search for Lexus ABS ring