Help with missing tone ring


Joined
Jun 24, 2026
Messages
2
Points
1
City
Keyser
State - Country
WV - USA
Vehicle Year
1999
Vehicle
Ford Ranger
Drive
2WD
Engine
2.5 (4 Cylinder)
Transmission
Manual
Total Lift
1"
Tire Size
27"/28"
So, I have a kind of strange problem. I replaced my open diff with an LSD of the type that was stock on Rangers, but I made the mistake of putting in one that was maybe from a different year, and lacks the tone ring that activates the wheel speed sensor. This means that the speedo, odo and ABS (which already didn't work) cannot work, and gives me a check engine light. The place that installed it knew it would cause an issue, but there were technical difficulties with my phone not receiving their calls for several days, and they decided to just install the thing anyway.

What I am wondering is if there is a way to solve this, even if something unorthodox, that is easier/less expensive than buying a whole new rearend and swapping it in again, and maybe even that doesn't require the existing one to be removed and modified but I recognize that is probably wishful thinking. I've read that the tone ring could possibly be transplanted on, but not sure if this is applicable for my specific rearend. It is the 7.5". Is there some way the sensor could instead interface with something I attach to the axle or driveshaft? Is there a GPS device that it could plug into and I just don't allow it to operate the ABS to prevent glitches? If I could get a good deal on a whole replacement axle, maybe I would consider it and do the work myself, but then the existing one would not sell for much.

I think including the parts and labor, getting a pretty good deal cost me a bit over $800 and I had to drive to a place an hour away. Something less costly than that would be ideal.

I could just cope indefinitely, but when it comes time for the biannual inspection, I would have to do something improper to make the dash light turn off.
 
Last edited:
If it was new, carriers don't generally come with tone rings. If it was used, any donor '89+ should have one, and I'd personally feel ripped off if a seller pried it off to sell separately.

For $100-150, my understanding is the Dakota Digital box can do whatever you need to fix the speed sensor. ABS I can't imagine anything is more viable than just popping the ring off your old carrier and moving it over.

Relatively speaking, it's like zero work, and shouldn't care about LSD vs open carriers. I put the tone ring on my Truetrac.
 
low speed is correct.

The tone ring should have been swapped from your original carrier to the new one (assuming that you just had the carrier replaced and not the whole axle) if you've got a whole axle without the provision for the sensor on top thats a whole other issue.

I haven't spent a lot of time looking for 7.5 stuff, but every carrier i looked at had the slot in it for the tone ring, it's an easy swap. The problem is that the ring gear has to come off again to install it because the slot is only open on the ring gear side. it should be very possible to do this but its going to cost you fluid, silicone and either some time in cleaning and re locating ring gear bolts or new ring gear bolts. it should not need re set up if the shims are kept straight and torque checked and put back the same when replacing.

IMO shop that did this should do it for free unless there is a legitimate reason that the new carrier wont accept the tone ring.

I also put the tone ring on my TrueTrac.
 

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