'94 XLT 4x4 disengaging on driver's side front hub.

[Spiritwolf15x]

Hey guys, last weekend when I was pulling my boat out using a not very good launching ramp that requires 4wd, I was shocked to have the left front hub "shunk" out of being engaged only to have it "shunk" back in a second later. Got the boat out though...

When I got home I took the hub off to find that everything looked fine and was nicely greased. The right side hub makes an audible click when I turn the locking dial while the left side hub does not. I think it might be the locking spring of the hub.

Has anyone else ran into this problem? Does anyone know where to buy a good replacement part, preferably on the cheap?

Thanks,

-Wolf.

 

[Redstone]

I have to assume you have manual hubs. I do not know about the manuals but they say here that you should degrease your autos, clean them out and fill them up with trany ( I don't mean...forget it I am not going to go there) fluid. Empty the trany fluid out. Put them back together. I guess the grease just gums every thing up, worse in winter. I have autos, there should be someone with manuals that can help you out.

 

[rustbucketMI]

You may have too much grease in the hubs. Have you successfully used them since the last time they were serviced?

 

[Spiritwolf15x]

You may have too much grease in the hubs. Have you successfully used them since the last time they were serviced?

Bought the truck off the original owner who said he'd never even put it into 4WD for the entire 230k KM that he owned it. So I'm thinking that it might all be original components and such.

As for actual service on the hubs themselves I think they might have only had the standard check over that any given mechanic might do during a tune up...

I'll have pictures of the current state of the hub uploaded soon.

-Wolf

 

[rustbucketMI]

I re-read your orginal post . . . the click you hear is that when you put it into 4x4, or into free? I have Warn manual hubs and the only time there is a click of any sort of when you lock them into free. This is because of the failure mode. In a failure it is better to leave 4x4 than fail and go into 4x4.

Either way I would take apart the hubs, clean an re-grease everything. If you need to replace 1 or both you can find them for as little at $80 a side.

 

[Spiritwolf15x]

I re-read your orginal post . . . the click you hear is that when you put it into 4x4, or into free? I have Warn manual hubs and the only time there is a click of any sort of when you lock them into free. This is because of the failure mode. In a failure it is better to leave 4x4 than fail and go into 4x4.

Either way I would take apart the hubs, clean an re-grease everything. If you need to replace 1 or both you can find them for as little at $80 a side.

These aren't anything as nice as WARN hubs, they are just the basic cheap ford stockers. The click I can hear nice and loud of the right hub is when I lock the hub to be able to use the 4WD function, the left hub barely makes a sound, and it is the one that is slipping (left, drivers side).

Pictures coming soon... ish...

 

[Spiritwolf15x]

UPDATE:

Soaked the locker assembly in a bucket of some rancid gas to clean it out, lubed it up with some ATF and stuck it back on, seems to be working perfectly fine now, gonna do the passenger side tomorrow just to be thorough.

Thanks for all input and advice.

-Wolf