An eventful day today!!!

[gumby6371]

So I nipped the youngest to school on my way to work, managed half a mile from the school gates and had a horrible grinding noise from the N/S/R, turned round and headed home.
Got the wheel and disc off to discover the lower pin that holds the handbrake shoes had pulled through the back plate, bounced around a bit and then proceeded to wedge itself between the shoe and disc. While it was on it's travels it managed to total the ABS sensor for good measure!
Rang around the LMF's and managed to get a new sensor for £21 and some pennies, not OE but the cheapest Bosch one was £45 and I thought I'd take a punt. Paid over the phone and was told to pick it up after 3.
As I now had the brakes in bits and a good few hours to kill I did this

Every cloud as they say

Pads and shoes have plenty of meat on them and I'd already bought new discs and a handbrake cable I'd intended fitting last weekend so carried on sorting that lot until the new sensor was available

3 pm came and I nipped off to the LMF with a nice big ABS warning light beaming at me. Started disconnecting the old sensor cable, undoing the connector at the harness end was a faff on the drive and trying to fit it back on the clip even more so but got there eventually. Last thing was to just undo the bolt holding it to the back plate and pop the new one on.......er......no!!!!

What f*%king numpty thought it was a good idea to put the drop link bolt and the sensor cable bracket directly behind the ABS sensor bolt????
With it being an Allen key bolt that was obviously rather rusty and full of crud it took me all of 10 minutes using various Allen keys and bits on a variety of extensions and wobble bars to well and truly round the bleeding thing as it's impossible to get anything on straight. Got the pliers out - won't fit in the gap, long nose pliers - grip it but not enough to turn, mole grips - no chance.
No amount of spray and shocking loosened it up and I eventually resorted to the hammer and screwdriver method to get it turning - didn't work either.

After much swearing and throwing of stuffed creatures from child transporters I said f*ck it and gave up, chopped the old lead off and cable tied the new sensor to the suspension arm (I was in too much of a mood to tackle the connector at the other end again).

Now I'm thinking I'm going to end up removing the back plate to get it out, not looking forward to that but at least I'll be able to finish my shiny new paint job
Bizarrely the O/S backplate had virtually no rust and 95% flat, smooth black factory paint, go figure!

[Doggy]

Feel for ya bud.

Your 406 rear discs/handbrake/backplate tee shirt is in the post......

[steve_earwig]

Bizarrely the O/S backplate had virtually no rust and 95% flat, smooth black factory paint, go figure!

N/s spends all it's life in the gutter? Dunno, strange as you say.

If you do decide to take the hub off, fingers crossed it just drops off...

[gumby6371]

I think it's my only option, are these any good or do I need something beefier?

http://www.halfords.com/motoring/garage ... uller#tab2

[GingerMagic]

Graham, don't buy that puller...!!

I made that mistake too,and when you use this type of puller, the hub/bearing splits and leaves the part nearest the backplate still on the shaft, and there is nothing exept the fragile backplate to lever against..ffs...

You will need the claw type, but one with slim 'barbs' as the gap between the back of the hub and the backplate is too small for the chunkier claw type ones.

Slim claw; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/45045002-Ultr ... 3f2e26d661

Unsuitable thicker claw; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3PC-BEARING-H ... 2c8596514d

You can see the difference.....

Nice job on the backplate BTW...

[markw]

If you're taking the hub off, remember that these things are really a one time use thing.

You put them on by drifting them in with a suitably sized socket/tube/whatever, against the inner race, so no force goes across the bearing. You take them off with pullers and the force is transferred across from the outer race, through the ball bearings and into the inner race. This can distort/destroy/pitt the ball races, making them unusable again.
In fact, old and worn bearings will break up on the way out and leave the inner race (in)conveniently behind on the stub!

If it comes off smoothly and without much effort, you might be lucky....

Just sayin', that's all.

I'd recommend a three legged puller btw.

[Rolebama]

I would not use a 'legged' puller of any sort. I would use this type, assuming you can in there with it. You can use them either way round to you should be able to support both inner and outer races. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2pc-Bearing-S ... 3a91d940ff

I am not recommending this particular one, I just found it quickly on EBay.

[steve_earwig]

What did Frank use? A 3-leg puller http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mX6SrUknrY just try not to hit your hand with the hammer when you're unstaking it...

I think Haynes says slide hammer, which is probably why they say you have to change the bearing every time - if anything's going to FUBAR the bearing a slide hammer is..

Or you could undo the nut and drive about until the wheel falls off...

[gumby6371]

Can't follow the ebay or youtube links at work but I'm getting the impression there's a chance of destroying the bearing regardless of which style puller used.
All this due to a awkwardly positioned bolt!

[steve_earwig]

You'll see the gluetoob later but Frank's using a 3-leg puller in it, which is all you need to know really. Hitting your hand with a hammer, on the other, err, foot...

I'm sure that Sonja did one of these, I thought the only problem she had was the bolt rounding off though

[gumby6371]

I did notice that one of the teeth is slightly chipped on the reluctor ring as well, I don't think it's bad enough to affect anything but the way my lucks going it will be.
So I've just emailed the MF's we use at work for a price on a new hub which according to Google comes with integrated bearing and reluctor ring. If I buy a new one the old one will come off easily with no bearing damage but if I don't it will fall apart in my hands!
Hopefully the new hub won't be too bad as I get trade discount and I then don't have to worry too much about damaging stuff.

Moral of the story is look after your back plates and replace the pin and spring with nuts bolts and washers ASAP!
That reminds me to check over my daughters swing, some of the nuts and bolts have miraculously disappeared. Must have been the fairies that live at the bottom of the garden!

[jasper5]

If you want to avoid taking off the hub and drilling out the sensor bolt....not an easy job....I have developed a work around to save lots of time and aggro.

Lever or break off the best you can the old plastic part of the sensor leaving the inner metal shaft and old bolt.
Match up the new sensor bolt hole and see which size to drill out the bolt hole on the new sensor or if you can get the metal insert on the new sensor out.
Fit the new sensor over the old shaft left in the backplate and glue it in place....

Job done

[gumby6371]

A small update on my ABS sensor;

After tea last night I decided to have another go at the thing with some inspiration from Jaspers advice.
I took as much off the wheel assembly as was practical and set about the old sensor with a big hammer and an old wood chisel. I only had the car on an axle stand so didn't have masses of swinging room but eventually I got about half of the plastic from around the offending bolt. Taking a slim punch that fitted (just) through one of the wheel bolt holes I tapped, then hit, then walloped the old sensor back through the backplate.

With the main body out of the way I set about the bolt, my chunky mole grips just about clamped the head and it moved through about 15 degrees before I ran out of room. After much slipping of the grips and swearing I managed to undo it 1/8 of a turn at a time.

Note how chewed the head now is!

Cleaned up the hole and persuaded the new sensor in which was a much tighter fit than I expected, Hadn't got a new bolt so back in went the old one and tightened as much as I could with my flexi driver. I doubt the sensor would move without the bolt but it might as well go back in.

I got half way through refitting the brakes and the light started to fade and the football was on so it was a 6 a.m. start this morning to put it all back together

More fettling is needed on the handbrake as there is a stiff spot as you spin the disc on the hub which must be the shoes as it did it with the caliper off and the manual adjuster wouldn't budge. Didn't have time to faff this morning as I needed to get washed and changed for work and I'm very used to driving a 406 with a crap handbrake.
The main thing is I now have a working ABS sensor!!!!

I got about 20 yards down the road before the ABS light went out at which point I felt like stopping the car and dancing a jig in the middle of the road due to all the faffing it's been to change. In the interests of road safety I thought it best to just go to work

[steve_earwig]

Bluddy hell, what a faff! I suppose you could look at it as the time I took to do it saved you the price of a new hub.

[Doggy]

Well done for sorting it out.

Useful work-around to know about too. (I've a feeling I'll need to find this post at some point).