retrofit ABS system

Hi all

Has anyone ever given thought to fitting an anti-lock brake system to their car? When I was dismantling my 164 for the engine and related parts, I held onto as much of the ABS system as possible with the vague idea of maybe being able to retrofit it to the stratos one day, but realize now it's a lot more complex than that. However, recently I was looking at these aftermarket systems designed for racecar use and fully programmable to a cars parameters:

http://www.bosch-motorsport.de/media...Brochure_e.pdf

Anyone got any experience in this field? Good/bad/overkill? To be honest, I definitely don't need it, but have seen these kits on the used market at much more reasonable prices than new and always am up for an engineering project/challenge

Paul

It's doable. You'd need a wheel speed sender and suitable toothed wheel on each corner that would send a stable signal. You will have a difference in Tyre circumference between front and rear to account for in your number of teeth on said toothed wheel.

There's nothing complex about the164 system, the electonics are a sub harness from Bosch, same as the ECU. I put one on my car year ago but didn't persevere with it - I'll come to that later!
If you've got the rear hubs off the 164 it's possible to remove the sensor rings from the casting. These can then be fitted to the front hubs. I got three sets of gear rings cut at an engineering company near me that were an interference fit over the inner CV joints. Sensor brackets were then made to fit to the front hubs and rear off the gearbox and intermediate shaft. Plumbing was straight forward from a standard two port master cylinder but you have to be very careful to match the pipework from the ABS control box to the correct sensor for obvious reasons.
If I remember correctly, wiring it was straight forward and I used the low fuel light as a warning light. Tests with a meter showed strong signals from each wheel and on the move (at slow speeds) the system showed no issues. Anything over 20mph and the warning light came on.....Initial thoughts were that there was big difference in the rolling radius of the tyres between the front and rear axles (205*50*15 vs 225*50*15 I think) but the electronics are supposed to be able to cope with a certain percentage differential to allow for uneven tyre wear.
In the end we traced the fault to the front sensors. Turned out that the engineering company I'd got to machine the step for the sensor ring had put it in the lathe by the cast end and not the machined side of the hub. Then, to attach the ring they'd welded it. The result was a ring that was running eccentrically and at varying distances from the sensor. Over 20mph the system decided the signal had failed so went into safety mode and turned off the ABS.
Shortly after that I converted the car to Gp4 spec with 345*35*15 and 225*50*15s and went to five stud hubs, I didn't have the inclination to go through the process again or find another pair of 164 rear hubs. So I removed the lot and reverted to twin master cylinders/balance bar.
If you want to have a go at this let me know, I'll see if I can dig out a pair of the rear sensor rings that fit over the Beta CV joints.