Save your LHD ABS with some help from a RHD ABS

Last year I rebuilt my ABS system by following the excellent article by warrenw: http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showt...ulator-rebuild-write-up?highlight=ABS+rebuild
Having done that I went to my local Honda shop to test the system with their ALB tester.
We went through the first three wheels without any issue but when we started exercising the last wheel ( the front right) it became impossible to restore the pressure in the system as the front right solenoid refused to close!
The Honda expert told me that it was normal that the front RH solenoid would go first as it's the wheel that gets exercised the most when driving on the right side of the road...
I then drove the car with no ABS ( pretty scarry on wet roads) until I saw a note from "scammy" based in New Zealand stating that he had an ALB unit to give away.
Scammy very kindly sent me the solenoids from his ALB system and good news, I discovered that his front RH solenoid was in good working order:smile:
I used a test very similar to the one described in the NSX shop manual except that I used a bicycle pump to inject the air in the solenoid.
The pump was fitted with a 9.5 mm ID rubber tube that will slip on to the solenoids.
Beware that above 4 to 5 bars pressure it will slip out.
As the pump is fitted with a gauge one can quicly see if any air escapes from the solenoid or not?
I also exercised the solenoids with a 12V motorbike battery as per the manual.
It's a pity I did not do this test when I renovated my ABS system as it's quite painfull to do it without removing the complete modulator from the car.
First drive tomorrow to see if it really works!


The front RH solenoid is the one nearest to the front of the car at least on a LHD car.

I'm assuming this is the 1st Generation ABS? If so, I'm curious why haven't you upgraded to the 2nd Generation ABS?

RYU said:

I'm assuming this is the 1st Generation ABS? If so, I'm curious why haven't you upgraded to the 2nd Generation ABS?

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Money?

I went for a test ride today and...it works great:smile:
I was lucky(?) as one of my favourite roads had been cleaned and was still soaked with water when I drove by!
A good push on the brakes and presto here comes my good ABS trying to push my foot backwards...
A very good and cheap experience

A couple of people have free'd stuck solenoids buy using brake fluid rather than air at pressure and then exercising the solenoid.
thanks for the update on this. Great way to recover from a stuck solenoid. The fact that it was stuck, how dirty was your ABS when you rebuilt the modulator?
This would be a good best practice to perform on all solenoids when rebuilding the modulator.
Another modulator saved! Maybe we should add this to the rebuild writeup?
Great work.

PS, I have only a quantity of 8 modulator o-ring kits left for 1991 - 1992 modulators.
http://www.nsxprime.com/forum/showthread.php/162710-ABS-ALB-modulator-rebuild-write-up

warrenw said:

A couple of people have free'd stuck solenoids buy using brake fluid rather than air at pressure and then exercising the solenoid.
thanks for the update on this. Great way to recover from a stuck solenoid. The fact that it was stuck, how dirty was your ABS when you rebuilt the modulator?
This would be a good best practice to perform on all solenoids when rebuilding the modulator.
Another modulator saved! Maybe we should add this to the rebuild writeup?
Great work.
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Thanks!
Beware that I did not save the defective solenoid, I just confirmed it was unserviceable.
IMHO it's the valve in the solenoid that starts leaking eitheir by normal wear or because a metallic particle get's caught in the valve itself.
The valve does operate as witnessed by the compressed air that escapes immediately when exercised.
The problem is due to the fact it doesn't close fully...
One can exercise it to death with no result whatsoever:frown:

mate, glad to hear that it all worked well
looking forward to collecting that bottle of wine one day :smile: