Manual Locking Hub Retainer Washer?

[drakehound]

I have a 1994 Ford Explorer XL with manual locking hubs. I found the attached diagram showing #8 "Retainer Washer." I am missing these washers. I have had this vehicle since new, so if they were removed, they were removed when the vehicle was being serviced by someone else. Does anyone else have these Retainer Washers? Can you show me what they look like?

I can't find replacements available for sale anywhere, and I am thinking of trying to match something up to do the job!

Thanks,

Bruce

 

[BKennedy]

All those washers do is keep the hub in place when the wheel is not in place. They are usually only useful during assembly of the vehicle. They usually get discarded the first time the hubs are serviced.

 

[RangerX]

They’re just a paper thin round clip that catches on the the threads on the wheel lugs. What BKennedy says is correct.

 

[drakehound]

They’re just a paper thin round clip that catches on the the threads on the wheel lugs. What BKennedy says is correct.

Do you know what the material of the clip is?

Are they more like washers are are they more like C-clips?

 

[BKennedy]

They are thin metal toothed washers. They are not needed. They are on a lot of American built vehicles to hold brake rotors and hubs in place while going down the assembly line. They would have been tossed in the trash off any 1st gen Explorer decades ago.

 

[RangerX]

Do you know what the material of the clip is?

It’s been years and years, but I remember them being thin spring steel.
They are not essential at all.

 

[drakehound]

Thanks guys!