Obviously it is a signal incompatibility issue at best.

If you modified the balancer you would also need a sensor from the Ford system to accomplish anything correct? Because it sounds like the two systems are functional opposites, the Ford detects a decrease in ferrous proximity and the MB detects an increase in ferrous proximity. So the electronics and signals of these systems are probably very different.

It may not be worth the effort, but rather than changing or adapting the mechanics or electronics of the system a more elegant solution might be conditioning the available signal to transform it to a signal more palatable to the test instrument.

You would start that by capturing the signal waveform from the two systems as they where designed to operate and then someone would need to devise some type of signal conditioner to accomplish the translation. This could be relatively simple or could be something more complicated and not worth pursuing. There are electrical engineers who are forum members who would be most likely able to give an appraisal as to what could be done most easily if they had the wave forms to compare them. Today there is a vast array of ICs some of which with a couple discrete components might accomplish the desired effect. There might even be a niche` market for an aftermarket module that could accomplish something like that.

With some research you might even find the timing signal waveforms somewhere on line that could give you a rough idea of the parameters involved.

If you’re an inquisitive fellow with a little time on your hands, do a web search and you will find freeware which can allow you to use the soundcard of a computer as a digital recording oscilloscope, a program such as this and a test lead can be used to detect signals and then generate a time/amplitude pictures of the waveforms. The frequency upper range limit is not that high but if the signals used in theses systems are single RPM events a simple setup like this should be able to do the trick.

Here’s a quick list of stuff like this!

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=Sound+card+O-scope&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=CxgdqpxnWTPOnFIiwyASXxcjWDwAAAKoEBU_QsUX6