stuzbot
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2021
- Messages
- 484
Hi all. It's been centuries since I've posted here. What with the atrocious summer, autumn and winter we had last year, I hardly got anything done on the motor at all. The luxury of having a "fun project" as opposed to a "daily driver" is that I get to skive off if the weather's not conducive to puddle-wallowing.
Anyway, those of you who remember my previous existence here will know I had a Collie [which turned out to be a bit of a lemon] and then, early last year, bought a Mk3 Hilux Surf. I was assured at the time you lot would still speak to me, despite the fact I'd gone a bit "off-piste" vehicle-wise. Anyway, since the Surf has the same running gear and engine as the Collie, I reckon your brains are still worth picking. So [finally!] on with today's query:
When I got the Surf, I noticed a bit of dampness round the rear axle hub and made a spot diagnosis of a leaking oil seal. A diagnosis reinforced by the fact there was a replacement hub oil seal in amongst the bundle of receipts and odd'n'sods that came with the wagon.
Fast forward to today and, having been blessed by a miraculous entire week without rain, I decided to pull the hub and take a look. I was expecting the 4 bolts holding the hub on to be the knuckle-skinning swearbox-filling sticking points. But they actually loosened off without any problems. The two things I thought would be easy; the handbrake lever and the ABS sensor decided to make up for it by being complete arses.
I couldn't get the pin which the handbrake lever mechanism pivots on [on the axle side of the backplate] to come out at all. So ended up having to unbolt the handbrake lever mechanism from the front of the backplate and remove the whole shebang through the backplate. Annoying. But not a huge deal.
The ABS sensor, on the other hand, is proving to be a total and utter bugger. I just can't shift it at all. I've tried prising with a flat-head screwdriver. Hitting it gently with a hammer. Soaking it in PlusGas. It won't move a millimetre. I don't want to welly it too hard, as it's made of plastic [or its outer casing is] and I'm not exactly sure how much abuse it will take. So I need to call on the collective wisdom here.
1: Does the ABS Sensor need to be removed to service the hub? In a couple of videos I watched on YouTube, they both took the ABS sensor off first. So I assumed it needed to be removed. I don't know how the sensor works. Does it mesh with part of the axle? Does it rest against it? Is it spring-loaded? As you can see from the photo below, perhaps foolishly, I gave the hub assembly a wee experimental wiggle, just to see if it felt like there was any resistance [ie. ABS sensor pressing on it] and the hub pulled forward quite easily. But seemed to kind of stick when I tried to push it back. So I thought I might have done something stupid and that now the ABS sensor was catching on something.
All suggestions gratefully received.
2: If the sensor DOES need to be removed, has anyone got any tips on how to do it. I had a quick intarwebs search before coming on here to post and, just skimming the first page of results, it seems a pretty common occurence and I saw lots of references to it snapping off, or having to be drilled out. So I'm not looking forward to falling down that particular rabbit hole.
Anyway, those of you who remember my previous existence here will know I had a Collie [which turned out to be a bit of a lemon] and then, early last year, bought a Mk3 Hilux Surf. I was assured at the time you lot would still speak to me, despite the fact I'd gone a bit "off-piste" vehicle-wise. Anyway, since the Surf has the same running gear and engine as the Collie, I reckon your brains are still worth picking. So [finally!] on with today's query:
When I got the Surf, I noticed a bit of dampness round the rear axle hub and made a spot diagnosis of a leaking oil seal. A diagnosis reinforced by the fact there was a replacement hub oil seal in amongst the bundle of receipts and odd'n'sods that came with the wagon.
Fast forward to today and, having been blessed by a miraculous entire week without rain, I decided to pull the hub and take a look. I was expecting the 4 bolts holding the hub on to be the knuckle-skinning swearbox-filling sticking points. But they actually loosened off without any problems. The two things I thought would be easy; the handbrake lever and the ABS sensor decided to make up for it by being complete arses.
I couldn't get the pin which the handbrake lever mechanism pivots on [on the axle side of the backplate] to come out at all. So ended up having to unbolt the handbrake lever mechanism from the front of the backplate and remove the whole shebang through the backplate. Annoying. But not a huge deal.
The ABS sensor, on the other hand, is proving to be a total and utter bugger. I just can't shift it at all. I've tried prising with a flat-head screwdriver. Hitting it gently with a hammer. Soaking it in PlusGas. It won't move a millimetre. I don't want to welly it too hard, as it's made of plastic [or its outer casing is] and I'm not exactly sure how much abuse it will take. So I need to call on the collective wisdom here.
1: Does the ABS Sensor need to be removed to service the hub? In a couple of videos I watched on YouTube, they both took the ABS sensor off first. So I assumed it needed to be removed. I don't know how the sensor works. Does it mesh with part of the axle? Does it rest against it? Is it spring-loaded? As you can see from the photo below, perhaps foolishly, I gave the hub assembly a wee experimental wiggle, just to see if it felt like there was any resistance [ie. ABS sensor pressing on it] and the hub pulled forward quite easily. But seemed to kind of stick when I tried to push it back. So I thought I might have done something stupid and that now the ABS sensor was catching on something.
All suggestions gratefully received.
2: If the sensor DOES need to be removed, has anyone got any tips on how to do it. I had a quick intarwebs search before coming on here to post and, just skimming the first page of results, it seems a pretty common occurence and I saw lots of references to it snapping off, or having to be drilled out. So I'm not looking forward to falling down that particular rabbit hole.
