Cleaning manual hubs?

[JDwornik]

I just picked up a set of warn manual locking hubs from the junk yard. They are in really good shape but I would like to clean them and do any kind of maintace I can before I put them on!

Anyone have and suggestions on how to clean them? Should I soak them like the auto hubs? Do I need to grease them? Any help would be great!!

 

[arco777]

I just picked up a set of warn manual locking hubs from the junk yard. They are in really good shape but I would like to clean them and do any kind of maintace I can before I put them on!

Anyone have and suggestions on how to clean them? Should I soak them like the auto hubs? Do I need to grease them? Any help would be great!!

Well, if you really want to, you could clean them with an auto parts solvent; wash out all the old grease and add new grease. You could rebuild the hubs too if you track down the necessary kit.

But... they are made by Warn, and were made to be dead reliable and long lasting. Slap a little fresh grease in there and they should be fine.

 

[RangerX]

Fill them with ATF, let them soak a while, drain/drip dry, install./

 

[JDwornik]

Fill them with ATF, let them soak a while, drain/drip dry, install./

Thats how I cleaned my auto hubs, But I thought I seen somewhere that your suppose to grease the manual hubs??

 

[Roadrunner777]

The manual hub is a very simple mechanism, and works fine dry. If you wish, you could very lightly grease them but they will become somewhat stiff in the cold weather.

 

[sirhk100]

Any more info? I just pulled mine apart on my lunch break cause my wheel bearings toasted themselves this morning so I could snug them up a bit more to get me home hopefully. The inside of the hub is full of lovely metal dust. Might not hurt the hubs but would like to keep it from working it's way back into new wheel bearings when i replace them tomorrow eve. Do they come apart relatively easy so I can wipe them all clean?

 

[4x4junkie]

There's a circular clip on the inside that holds the guts in that you'll need to pry out with a small screwdriver or similar, then the locking sleeve, a bearing (or bushing), spring and some other parts will come out. Under the dial label there's also a screw you can remove to release the rest of the guts from the hub body (I've heard some warnings about taking out that screw... I don't know how dire such warnings are however I'm confident I could deal with it if something was to go "SPROINGGG!!").

Clean everything up good with solvent, put a very light coating of bearing grease on the parts (don't run them dry like someone said above, the hub still spins relative to the axle in 2WD and needs lubrication), reassemble it, reinstall the clip... All done.