Rough brake job- ended up with broken rear tone ring

[Stevo F]

I did the brakes today on the '97 GT. Decided to do rotors and pads all the around (car has had a bad shake when applying the brakes since i bought it last week) but i hindsight, I probably should have skipped doing the back rotors.

 

On the right rear, I ended up pushing a stud trying to get the rotor loose ) in a breaking out a once inch section of the tone ring mounted on the back side of the hub (I know it was a knucklehead thing to do).

 

On the drivers side ended up snapping off both mounting bolts for the caliper. Drilled them out, but I don't think things are lining up right (seems to be rubbing) so I'll have to order a new caliper bracket for that one.

 

I only took it for a very short test drive and didn't see an ABS light for the missing tone ring teeth (at least not yet).

 

It looks like the tone ring can be easily replaced if you pull the axle, but I don't see it sold separately anywhere, so will I need to replace the entire axle assembly (assuming it wreaks havok with the ABS eventually).

 

Front brakes were fun too. Vibration was caused by the drivers side front caliper wearing the outer pad completely out and had a torn seal on the piston, so I replaced it. On the passenger's side, the sliders were frozen in the bracket (I guess no one bothered to lubricate them the past couple of brake jobs) so i replaced it with the bracket from the bad driver's side caliper (luckily they are interchangeable).

 

At least the vibration is gone now!

[Brighton96]

Did you do the bed in procedure? Also did you make sure to take the slide pins out and clean/regrease them?

[Stevo F]

Still need to do a good bed in. Wanted to take it easy until I saw how the repaired caliper bracket would fare. Yes, the slide pins are freely moving. On the front bracket I replaced I was able to knock out one slide pin with a chisel and free it up, but the second one only came out part way, so i gave up on it and reused the front bracket from the caliper I replaced. I can give the stuck bracket back with my core and let the rebuilder deal with it.

[Brighton96]

Did you press the caliper piston back in with the system closed or did you open the brake system/remove the brake hose?

[Stevo F]

Just connected the hose to the new caliper and pulled a few ounces of brake fluid from the system to get any air bubbles out. I had intended to pull fluid at all 4 wheels and flush the system but time didn't permit yesterday because of all the issues I ran into.

[Setnev]

I just looked at the FSM and the tone ring replacement requires you remove the wheel hub from the spindle. Unfortunately this almost assuredly destroys the rear bearing as you need to use a slide hammer to remove it from the spindle which pulls the bearing apart. If you get lucky, it may not damage the rollers or the guide of the bearing half.

[Stevo F]

The question I have is the rear tone ring even available by itself? I couldn't find it listed anywhere. I will likely leave this repair for my mechanic. Might as well just replace the wheel bearing while he's in there as it's likely original with 198K miles on it. The P.O. replaced the passenger's front wheel bearing already.

 

Interestingly, I took the car on a 2- 3 mile run to bed in the new brakes and no ABS light yet. Actually felt ABS kick in a little on the last firm stop I did, so I know they work.

[Setnev]

Yes it is still available. The part number is 26750AA014

[Stevo F]

So I ended up dropping the car off with my mechanic because it needed a front axle anyway. He told me part # 26750AA014 was not correct for this car (although I confirmed it on a couple of websites) when his parts distributor checked against my VIN #.

 

Took a week to get the part in, but he said had no issues putting it on and didn't have to replace the axle bearing or anything, but that "ooops" ended up costing me $221 ($104 for the part and $117 for labor) which could have been worse, I guess.

 

I had him look everything over and he said only other issue he could find was the normal oil leaks so now the car is back home and drives well. Even had a driving lesson in with our 16 year old tonight.

[MarVelo]

I just finished fixing my front driver ABS tone ring on a 1999 Legacy Outback Wagon. I hit the ring with a hammer while doing a wheel bearing replacement (after the new one was in so I would have to replace seals again if I took it back out). A 2 inch section of the ring broke free. I tried to JB weld it back in place which worked for about 100 miles. The broken section flew out on the road and was lost so no chance to weld.

 

My solution was to cut the good ring on my scrap hub in half with a 1/8 cutoff wheel on an angle grinder. I cut in the recessed portions of the ring pattern so as to not affect the sensor readings. When held up next to each other the missing section from the 2 cuts was very small. One of my cut sections has three (3) bolt holes and the other has two (2). I removed the broken ring from my hub by slicing it with the same cuttoff wheel after unbolting. Next I bolted up the replacement sections. Final step was disconnecting the battery for a few minutes to clear the ABS codes. I went for a long drive and not only did the ABS light stay off, I noticed a significant improvement in shift performance and drive-ability. ABS really improves the brake power!

 

I want to dispel some myths I have seen around the internet for people that are researching to fix this problem on their own.

 

1. Disabling ABS either through the broken tone ring or sensor (or unplugging a sensor) does NOT only disable the anti lock brake system. The system also acts as a wheel speed sensor. When disabled, the transmission will shift strangely and at times slam HARD into gear when accelerating from a stop or slow speed.

 

2. The sensor is counting magnetic impulses from the raised pattern on ring. As long as your repair does not interfere with the raised sections of the pattern there will be no problem. Be it a gap from cutting or a tack weld, it should not interfere as long as there is no raised material.