Need help before failure!!! Auto hub popping

[Brett F.]

Hey guys didn't really know where to put this but.....

Today at lunch at a redlight while easing forward I hear a popping sound. Not constant it almost seems like every 6-8 inches of travel I get a pop out of the passenger front tire.

I pulled into a gravel parking lot and put into 4hi and I could hear both hubs engage then drove a few feet and then dropped back to 2wd and backed up and both hubs disengaged.

I still hear the popping but only when easing along like at a redlight.

Any Ideas??

Thanks for your help all search did was give me radius arm bushing.

 

[mikeinri]

It doesn't sound like it's really disengaging. Pull the hubs, check for broken pieces, including the plastic cams. If everything looks OK, clean all grease out of the hubs and off of the cams. Do a search here on the procedure, you need to clean and lube using ATF. Do not use any grease when you reinstall.

If you still have a problem, the next likely culprit is the u-joints on the front end. If you don't know how to diagnose this, bring it to a shop.

Hope this helps.

Mike

 

[Brett F.]

Thanks, looks like I'll get into it Sat. morning.

 

[Tony H]

Very common on these cheesy Auto Hubs.

Mine did the same. as you say, you hear it as you creep along.

I , as most of us have replaced the Auto hubs with Manual ones.

 

[jtison]

Quick half-a$$ fix

If you don't mind living with a rear-wheel drive (only) temporarily while you get to the root of the problem (mine was the infamous radius arm bushings & brackets), you can do this:

• Pull the automatic lock ring off the spindle. It comes apart into two pieces ... one has the locking tangs and spring on it, the other is very low-profile.
• Turn the low-profile piece over: you want the bumpy part pushing against the bearing retaining washer. This keeps the (important) retaining washer in place.
• Put the higher-profile, pointy-tanged piece someplace safe. If you're ever going to reinstall the auto hubs, you'll need to reassemble that lockring properly.
• Reassemble the wheel. Your automatic lock hubs can never engage now, and will stop making that grinding noise.

It stops that head-turning noise that will get hundreds of peoples' attention in a parking lot. But if you want a real 4x4, you'll need to either fix the problem (sometimes it's just a twentieth-of-an-inch problem with the halfshafts) or just replace the auto hub with a manual locker.

 

[Brett F.]

Yeah when I pulled the hubs off and cleaned everything with brake cleaner I let the hub soak in ATF and it helped a lot. Going to do a bearing job and replace rotors this fall so I will go manual at that time also.