Why would the rear be more labor intensive? It's no more complicated in the rear than the front plus there is a lot more room back there. Sounds screwy to me.

 

My 2006 shop manual says that the whole assembly of the half shaft must be removed (front or rear) and that the tone ring is an integral part of it. IE you have to buy a whole new halfshaft to replace it.

Looked up on Rockauto.com and you can buy just the tone ring. Probably have to press it on somehow.

But you will have to get free access to the end of the halfshaft to install it and probably that means remove the halfshaft.

Doesn't make sense that a tone ring would fracture, it has little stress on it other than that of being pressed on. I infer a manufacturing defect. But just try and get Ford to make that one good......

 

I've read in another forum, believe it or not the cheapest place that one can buy the tone rings are a Ford Dealer.

 

The tone ring fails because the corrosion underneath it increases the diameter of the shaft land where it is pressed. It essentially bursts.

 

I understand the mechanism whereby corrosion products are larger than the constituents... But his takes years and years unless you drive around in axle deep water 24/7...

Looking at the tone ring on Rockauto.com versus the flange it is installed on... the tone ring just looks like it would deform the flange rather than the tone ring cracking. Just my 2¢.

 

I replaced my cracked tone ring with one from Rock. To me it appeared identical to the old one. Re the rate of corrosion, I think the salt used on the roads here greatly accelerates the issue.

 

Huh! Well I'll be. Guess I need to get out the inspection mirror and a flashlight and go look closely at the tone rings on my 06 FEH. Delivered in Dec 05 and spent the last 5 winters in the DC area where salt is heavily used. Maybe somethings cooking out there.

When you replaced your tone ring did you have to pull the halfshaft off completely or were you able to do it from the outside end with the wheel & such pulled off?

 

In my opinion, they did not make the tone ring thick enough.

If you can see in the photo (front passenger side) the ring just slips ( is pressed ) on to the hub. Lots of trade space for thickness of the ring or size of the boss that it fits in.

Replaced both of my front ones now. A material change may also go a long way towards resolving the reliability issue.

 

I removed the lower ball joint attachment and used a puller to push the half shaft loose from the wheel bearing. I left the inboard connection to the half shaft intact as well as the brake caliper. Removing the lower ball joint stud is 99% of the battle as it develops a side load which solidly locks it into place. I finally figured out that as the control arm swings through its arc of movement there is a sweet spot where the ball joint stud is unloaded and just slips out.

I sanded the land until shiny then heated the new tone ring with a propane torch before tapping it on using the old tone ring as a buffer.

 

Not bad, thanks much. The shop manual looks like it could be done as you did. So good to confirm it.

I'm also kind of thinking through half shaft replacement as I've developed a vibration that feels like a U-joint going bad. I replaced the u-joints last summer and the vibration hasn't changed. Been to the Ford dealer a couple of time for accident repairs and they declared the CV joints OK. Still I'm feeling that vibration...

Any reason you couldn't have heated the new tone ring in the kitchen oven? An old friend, Navy EMCM(SS), told me once that it is better to heat things in an oven, even new bearings, than to use a torch. He used to put bearings on things that way and seemed to have a good track record.