How I repaired an ABS Wheel Sensor

[tjmaskell]

Hi everyone. Having owned my first Honda ST 1100 for less than 2 months,I was slightly shocked when the abs lights failed to go out as per usual on riding off. Fearing expensive ECUs etc I was happy upon doing the spin test to find it was just a $400 sensor. Not wanting to lighten my wallet by $400 and having the handle MacGyver I naturally decided to fix the broken one. Now yours might not have the same problem but this is what I found. When you examine the sensor you notice its sealed around the top with glass like resin. Remove this ,I used a 3 mm wide chisel and vice and after 20 minutes of careful chipping was all out revealing the cause of the failure. The 3 wires virtually fell out with the rubber sleave. A mass of green corroded copper wire was all that was left. Luckily there was some insulation left to record the colours and order. Next with long nose pliers twist whats left of the wires into pigtails (see photo).I then made a pvc disc. on the lathe ,( a button will probably do) filled the cavity with 2 pac epoxy glue and placed the button over the 3 wires so they now protruding through (see photo) .Overnite to harden, now we have a solid base to work with. Ok with a stanley knife carefully scrape the sticking through copper wire , dab with Bakers soldering fluid and solder on the 3 new wires, tape the tops together ie tripod like so they dont fall over. Now fill the cavity with epoxy liquid metal, and leave overnite to harden. Shrink Warp the 3 to form 1 and solder back to the original lead and install. Works well. Thanks!

[Brock]

Nicely done, and good result.

[tjmaskell]

Thanks Brock, I am sure many sensors are discarded with the same problem. It's a design fault, moisture copper, aluminum and electricity, trouble for sure. Cheers, Trevor

[Biggles]

And they can charge $400 for that bit of equipment!?   
Would cost $5 to make, including the machined bracket.

[Gadget]

I was happy up until "Bakers soldering fluid". It's made from:

Zinc Chloride 30-60%
Ammonium Chloride <10%
Hydrochloric Acid <2%
Water Balance

I don't recommend using it near electronics because it can create corrosion of the copper.

That said, the remedy is very creative thinking. And $400 is $400.

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[Shiney]

Awesome work tjmaskell, thanks for sharing the fix with us

Cheers
Shiney

[Brock]

Oh  definitely keep away from soldering fluid, its nasty stuff, only meant for plumbing work. Use resin cored solder from your local electronics store.

Perhaps a heatshrink sleeve over the wires, before the Dexcon as well, I cant remember how conductive it is.

Perhaps use JB Weld or Araldite instead.

[tjmaskell]

Yes , your dead right about the bakers, however my rational for using it was the really bad state of the wires ( dirty and hard to get good penetration of the solder and the fact that it was to be totally encapsulated , no moisture or oxygen . I guess only time will tell.  Also the Dexcon seems to be non conductive ,the sensor works like new . Thanks guys .

[Gadget]

Did you consider replacing the wires for some of the length? I find usually the verdigris goes back several inches to a foot. I've even had copper wire go a black scaley color and solder just won't take. Replacement seems to be the only option.

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[tjmaskell]

I cut the sensor wire off about 3 inches  from It. At that point the wire was bright and clean , it was the 3/8 of inch sticking out off the sensor that was the problem. Difficult to clean and fragile looking . The wires I soldered on we're about 3 inches.

[Gadget]

you've done the best in difficult circumstances.

[Greencan]

 Well done

Another less time consuming and cheaper option is to simply replace the sensor with a non-OEM one...I'm sorry but cannot recall the part number of the top of my head at present, but they are about $20 and mount in the same way. Just need to part and pair the wiring to the OEM after cutting off the old sensor and disgarding it. I'll probably forget to follow up and cite the part mumber when I get home, so if (in the unlikelihood), your repair should fail, just ring Frank (or John), Guymer at MC cruise in Melbourne and he'll sort you out.

Oh, you may have to re-shim (subtract), for clearance if final drive wheel flange is excessively worn. This was the only issue I recall having at the time. :-)

And like your Devcon repair, the cheaper replacement have also an epoxy fill and not a boot;-)

[spanner]

its ok ..... we wont let you forget     

[Greencan]

Arvo All...

Tis a miracle, I remembered

OK, The sensor I had a little involvement with when I rebuilt the last final drive assembly was procured from the Guys at MC Cruise control (Frank and Tony Guymer), and it was one that was a sample from Cherry that they just happened to have. So they don't stock them.

Now just having been speaking with Frank,, have been able to narrow a replacement sensor for the hideously expensive OEM sensor (f needed), have come up with the following. However, the kicker is that these type of sensors (geared tooth speed sensor), have gone up in price quite a bit...perhaps now around $50-$80 (not sure).

Cherry (imports), have been taken over Goods & Imports, or you could try Element 14.

from the pdf below...

http://datasheet.octopart.com/GS100701-Cherry-datasheet-7283633.pdf

....it looks as if GS 100701 is the one I saw that the owner had set into the OEM TDK 99274 carrier (with a silastic), and connected into the OEM sensor wiring before the plug (wet jointed), so that behaved (for removal) purposes, like and OEM.  Ignore the threads on the sensor, once the OEM sensor is removed from its 2 screw cradle, the Cherry one is simply stuck and wired in, simple as that. Make sense?

Oh, not sure if I would use Devcon for this, just in case it warrants replacing again, though I have sung its praises.

Anyway, as the originator of this thread has said, a bit of mucking about for his repair, so this non-OEM replacement will also require a bit of mucking about, but considerably cheaper than the OEM replacement. $50-$80 compared to $200au for the OEM assembly.

Just a thought.

The can :-)