Fitting New Reluctors

On most occasions you just can’t repair the reluctors so you need to buy new ones. Smart don’t sell the rings on their own but smartmods.co.uk does. We like to test ours against our “competitors” (said in a sarcastic voice simply because all the other reluctor rings we have obtained for testing have been terrible, poor corrosion resistance, strange sizes or wildly out of tolerance). Smartmods don’t cut corners because they aren’t profit driven.

So, car jacked up, wheel off, and drive shaft bolt out using a 21mm socket (see here).

Using an 18mm ring spanner and E18 socket, remove the bottom x-frame bar bolts. Put the drive shaft bolt back in about 4 turns and pound with a rubber mallet. It shouldn’t take to much but eventually the shaft will move most of the way out. Remove the drive shaft bolt once again.

You can now push the hub away to release the end of the drive shaft.

Lift it up out of the bearing housing.

Lever the other end out of the gearbox.

And you now have the driveshaft out. Repeat on the other side.

Here you can see the fault, the ABS reluctor ring is split. Take it off and thoroughly clean up underneath until you get down to the metal.

Fitting Option 1 – Sweating

If you buy some cheap reluctor ring from eBay, this is option 1 of 4 for fitting.

Silly name but that’s what the process is called. Heat the ring up until it glows red all the way around and lower it into place. The heat expands the metal enough for it slide on. Be warned though, you need an excellent gas gun to be able to get enough heat into the ring.

MAPP Gas torches seem to just about do it.

It’s a pain and hard to do. If you don’t have a decent gas gun, that’ll be extra.

Fitting Option 2 – Drifting

If you buy some cheap reluctor ring from eBay, this is option 2 of 4 for fitting.

This method requires you to slide the new ring into place using a big-assed hammer. Place the new ring on with the old ring over the top. The old ring is sacrificial and takes all the damage as you can see. Hit evenly all the way around until the ring is in place.

With the ring correctly fitted, give it a spray of exterior grade paint. It’s an extra lever of protection but mainly it creates a seal between the shaft and the ring to stop rust getting underneath.

Refit the shafts.

It’s time consuming and the hammering could damage the CV joint of the drive shaft.

Fitting Option 3 – Pushing

If you buy some cheap reluctor ring from eBay, this is option 3 of 4 for fitting. Lee M bought a bush installation kit like the one below.

You place the reluctor ring in place, offer the correct size tool up to it, place the correct threaded rod through the tool and screw it into the drive shaft. Wind the nut all the way down the threaded rod until it touches the tool. Now you have to continue to turn that nut, which in turn will press the reluctor ring into position.

When the ring is in the correct position, back the nut off, remove the threaded rod and the tool. However, these aren’t cheap although you could make the tool for a fraction of the price if you can weld.

Fitting Option 4 – Gluing

Smartmods reluctor rings are a fraction larger than the outside rim of the drive shaft when cleaned back of rust. Fitting of these is incredibly easy using either epoxy glue, chemical metal or thread lock fluid. Personally I prefer 2 part epoxy. Place a line of epoxy around the outside of the drive shaft where the ring will sit. Slide and twist the ring into place and apply a bead to the joining faces on both sides.  Leave the epoxy to dry for an hour and refit the drive shafts.

Specific 21mm Socket

Most sockets of this size will be the correct “dual hexagon” type. But check yours just in case as some sockets, especially impact sockets are standard single hexagon type.

The socket on the left is the correct type, the socket on the right will not fit.