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Originally Posted by Ruff Ryder 6
Hey gills, thanks for documenting this so well. I see you put a lot of effort into mounting up all the sensors. What about for those that have the factory ABS spindles and diff covers? I know you mentioned using the Z33 sensors in the rear. Are all the BMW sensors active sensors and required for use with that system? I have S14 ABS spindles in the front and a Z32 rear cover with sensors in the rear. I’d love it if I could just purchase the ABS unit and controller and wire it up with Nissan sensors without having to go through the machining work you did. (Not a machinist and don’t have the same access to tools as you do). The Z33 front sensors are mounted different than S14 and they may be active sensors as well.
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I'm almost certain that all modern ABS systems (early 2000's+) use active sensors. Or, any that have DSC or some kind of stability control which is everything these days. Z33 sensors are confirmed to work with the BMW system. The German company ATE seems to supply many/most of these ABS/DSC/TC modules and controllers for OEM's so it's no surprise there's a lot of cross compatibility. You cannot use older style sensors like from S-chassis and Z32.
So you have a head start already since you have ABS spindles. No need to go through what I did with much machining. If you use the E46 sensor, you just need to come up with a solution for the mounting hole. The hole the sensor itself goes through is perfect (18mm I believe). The E46 sensor uses an M6 vs an M8 bolt to mount, and the hole is closer to the centerline of the sensor vs the Nissan configuration.
Other than that, it's actually shocking at how well this sensor works in the S14 upright in terms of it's length and air gap to the tone ring.
I *believe* the issue with using Z33 sensors up front is that they read the tone ring at the very tip of the sensor end, vs the side of the tip on the E46. I.e.- the sensor is mounted in the radial direction from the spindle/tone ring where the E46 one is mounted axially with respect to the spindle (installs through the backside of the upright). In my quick searches, the E46 front sensor is one of the only active sensors that reads in this orientation, perhaps due to MacStrut style suspension.
The rear it'll be easier to use Z33 sensors since they are oriented correctly already and mounting holes line up perfectly.
You need to find diff output shafts that were for an ABS car and have tone rings on them. Then you'll likely need to shim the Z33 sensors away from the tone ring as they protrude more and will hit it as I mentioned. If I knew that these sensors needed to be "clocked" a certain way before hand, I would've went with the Z33 ones.