How to Remove an Anti-Lock Brake Sensor

Video Transcript

"In this clip we're going to talk about the proper way to remove and replace a rear wheel anti-lock brake sensor on a late model Ford Explorer. In this step, we're going to talk about removal and re-installation of your rear wheel anti-lock brake sensor. I have the replacement module here in my hand. This is pretty much it, let me go over it with you a little bit. This portion here is where your body electronics plugs into it. You see the retaining clips here and here, that's where the electrical connector plugs into. What we have here, is where the mounting bolt goes through. It only has one bolt and it is a lefty loosey, righty tighty kind of bolt. On the other end is where our magnetic pick-up is. This operates off of what you call the Holofect Principal. Inside the differential on this vehicle is a gear and it looks, it's not quite this big, it looks something like this. As the teeth of the gear pass by, the magnet inside counts them. It'll notice the difference in speed from wheel to wheel and understand that the vehicle rear wheels are locking up. Once it detects that difference in speed between the teeth, it'll start pulsing fluid to the rear portion of your braking system and keep the wheels from locking up. Due to the location on a 91 Ford Explorer, it's very difficult to film. Like I said, it's got one bolt. It's a lefty loosey, righty tighty. I'm going to go ahead and remove the old one right now and show you the mounting bolt and where the new one goes. What we have here is the old anti-lock brake sensor and I have the bolt here for it. The bolt goes right through this area; you can see the hole there. The bolt goes right through it and it's a lefty loosey, righty tighty kind of bolt. It only has one of them in it, so it's the only one you have to worry about. We've went and removed the bolt and pulled the sensor out. The sensor is actually bad, it shorted out internally. You're going to have to do some wiggling to get it out. As you can see, there's oil on this end of the sensor. Now the oil on the sensor is coming from the lubrication system inside the rear axle. You can also see this o-ring here. The o-ring is the reason why you've got to do some wiggling. That o-ring squeezes out and seals the axle assembly from the outside environment. This is my new anti-lock brake sensor. As you can see, I've got an o-ring there. The style is a little different, but it doesn't really matter as long as you get the right on for your vehicle it'll work just fine. The mounting nut hole is marginally adjustable, it just make it for ease of installation. You can see how it's elongated, where as the factory one is perfectly round. What you're going to do is wiggle that into the rear axle, insert your mounting bolt and run it down finger tight. Once you have it finger tight, you're going to go ahead and torque it one quarter turn. That is the proper way to remove and replace your rear wheel anti-lock brake sensor."