4x4 front hub
I'm familiar with Ford's vacuum actuated front hubs on their 4x4s and was able to add an EGR solenoid into the system that can be energized to prevent the hubs from engaging on rare occasions when I w...
Forum Discussion
Grit dog wrote:valhalla360 wrote:cummins2014 wrote:
I could manually lock my hubs on my 99 Superduty ,and they were also auto .
That's how I recall on the 2001 I had. Problem was unless you manually operated them regularly, they would get harder and harder to turn. I made a habit of ever month or so moving them a few times. Even then it took a tool (stuffing box wrench from the boat) to turn them.
This should not have been the case. Did you ever take them apart to see why? Generally it's because someone slathered the locking hub mechanism full of grease. The guts of the locker should essentially be dry. Recommendations vary from dry to a spray of light lube to a very small, judicious amount of grease.
Unless they leak water in and get corroded, that is. For example, I have a 1974 Jeep, that until last year, the front lockers/bearings etc hadn't been apart for at least the 15 years I owned it and likely not for a quarter century or more. They still operated like butter.
I probably engaged them every year or 3, depending if I took it wheeling or not.
Same with the 1986 GMC we have. I still need to open up the front hubs and check/pack bearings, but by the looks of everything, these haven't been apart in a very long time either. And they work easily.
Even back in the day, in the rust belt, a hard to turn or stuck locking hub mechanism was rare on the fleet I took care of.
This is inclusive of several 4wd Superduty company trucks I had over the years as well. Especially given I never really turned the hubs because they are auto.
I don't claim to be an expert but I looked it up at the time and it was a common issue. Crud gets built up around the o-ring that seals them and makes them harder and harder to turn.
I didn't use 4x4 and I could get it to operate (with hassle), so never felt the need to tear it apart.
Was the 1974 Jeep the same style as the 2001 Ford? I thought back then they were manual only. One recommended solution was to swap them out for simple manual hubs (you do lose the 4x4 on the fly option of course unless you leave the hubs locked).
