I think my hubs are broken

[Broncosaurus!]

I was in 4 wheel with the hubs engaged and the font wheels werent spinning, then metal clunk and they caught, both caught at the same time though, and I thought that was wierd. Also when I was in 4 and slowing down the left front wheel made a clunking noise, I couldnt see anything wrong or out of place. any ideas?

Also, my sun visor says the switch should do almost a full turn, but it is only about 90 degrees that it can turn, and they are both like that. Should I take them apart and have a look, can I repack my wheel bearings with grease while I'm at it, cause i hear that needs to be done after mudding.

 

[Yardape]

90 degrees sounds pretty accurate for stock hubs. Sounds like your hubs are toast. If you need a cheap fix you can get Warn standard hubs with are fairly priced, but if you can swing it I'd get Warn premiums, I recently upgraded to them and I really like them. The Warn standards are very much like stock, When you engage them you can feel a spring engage the hub. In extreme cold, I found that they did not like to engage, The Premiums are almost a full turn and you can feel a positive lock-in, well worth the money.

 

[Justbust1n]

90 degrees sounds pretty accurate for stock hubs. Sounds like your hubs are toast. If you need a cheap fix you can get Warn standard hubs with are fairly priced, but if you can swing it I'd get Warn premiums, I recently upgraded to them and I really like them. The Warn standards are very much like stock, When you engage them you can feel a spring engage the hub. In extreme cold, I found that they did not like to engage, The Premiums are almost a full turn and you can feel a positive lock-in, well worth the money.

yeah i would take them apart and see and like you say go ahead and repack your bearings while your at it if you dont keep them bearing packed you can look at a hit in the pocket that could have been avoided.. yes try to repack them if you go mudding and submerge it alot .... it washes the grease away water and grease dont mix , and this is something you should know how to do or teach your self how to do cause it need to be done after serious muddin h34r: /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 

[1982 bronco lifter]

are you sure it is fully out of fourwheel drive

 

[Broncosaurus!]

I was trying to climb one wheel over a rock and just my back wheels were spinning, I asked my brother if the passenger side front wheel was spinning he said no, and then CLUNK, I had 4 wheel drive, but they both did it at the same time, but I suppose both hubs would need to be locked in order to get 4 wheel drive right?

In extreme cold, I found that they did not like to engage

Are you talking about stock or the WARN Prem's?

Yeah for $15 more no doubt I'd go with the warn premiums, and I like the 9/10ths of a full turn design.

 

[Yardape]

Both have to be engaged, even if one fails you are done unless you have a locker up front. The diff will spin the easiest tire and that would be the one not locked in, in your case. I was refering to stock when I was talking about the extreme cold, but the standard warns are pretty much the same. Up here they are alot more than $15 more, they are over $100 difference.

 

[Broncosaurus!]

Any tips or pictorial walk-throughs out there for replacing them? If I take the hub apart how will I know if they are worn out, metal shavings and particles?

 

[Yardape]

The best way to tell if they are worn out would be jack a front wheel off the ground, lock the hub and turn the wheel, look behind the wheel at the axle and see if its turning. Then repeat on the other side. Removal is easy, Undo the allenhead screws holding the cap on. I remember having a rough time finding the correct allen key size, Seems oddball to me. Make sure the cap is in the "free" position. There is a retaining clip on the axle, remove that. There is a retaining ring around the outside of the hub (outside on the inside, understand?LOL) Thats a pain in the butt to remove but is possible. Kind of hard to see but once your in there its pretty straight forward. Do you know how to do bearings? Now would be a good time to repack/replace your bearings. One other thing do not grease the hubs, it makes them sticky and they will not engage properly.

 

[Broncosaurus!]

It will be at least 2 weekends from now before I can get to this, and at this point I didnt get the outside of the inside thing. I have a manual, and I have not consulted it yet. This problem just became apparent last night. I really appreciate the advice. I am going to go jack up the truck and play with the wheels.

 

[Yardape]

Inside where all the hub guts are, there is a retaining ring that holds the hub guts in place. it expands to the outter circumferance of the inner hub. I am giving details because its kind of hard to see the ring.

 

[firelt90bronco]

The hubs are probably shot, I would replace them with Warn ones anyway, if you do alot of wheeling. I would also do the wheel bearings while you are there. Remove the old grease and replace it with new just to be sure there are no pieces metal in it that could damage anything.

 

[Broncosaurus!]

yeah checked the old manual, seems pretty simple, I will order some new hubs and bearings right away. It wasnt just that one incident either, but the one i cited made the problem obvious, but as I was driving down this slick trail, my back end was kicking out more than it should have in 4wheel, it seemed like the front wasn't pulling, it was just obvious later when I tried to drive a wheel over that rock.

any recommendations on where to order the package deal from? Warn Prems and wheel bearings.

 

[KJEfting]

Here is a blurp from a reply I gave someone else on here a while back... My drivers side hub fell out in pieces when I took it apart that day. I put some premium Warn hubs on it and I'm very satisfied with their performance.

"Hey man, just yesterday I replaced my factory manual hubs with new Warns on my 93. I also replaced both my inner and outer wheel bearings, bearing seals, rotors and pads. All the info is fresh in my mind so I'll type it all out. If it has Warn manual hubs on it already, just put the same ones back on it. I don't think it will matter if it was converted over from auto hubs or not. If you want to turn the rotors while you have them off you'll have to remove the ABS ring on the back to get the lugnuts off. I just carefully popped the lugnuts through, pushed them against the ABS ring and lightly tapped on them from the front on all four sides. The ring is pressed on, but isn't very hard to get off. If it won't come off easily, remove the inner bearing seal and inner wheel bearing, clean out all the grease in there and apply a little heat with a torch. Not too much though. It should pop right off then. Be careful though, I'm not sure what kind of metal that ring is made of, but it sure isn't steel and it will break. Simply tap it back on with a hammer to reinstall it. If your old bearings were bad, I would use some fine grit emery cloth to smooth the surface on the shaft before installing new wheel bearings. I reccommend pounding out the race for each bearing and replacing them as well. Some people do, some people don't. The warn hubs should be just two pieces; the hub itself and the cover. Make sure you take off both the retaining clip on the inner spline and the retaining clip along the outside edge of the hub. If your brake calipers are the type that have the punch pins, I would replace those pins as well. Mine were starting to rust through and the caliper was loose. Plus they were only $0.80 a piece at NAPA. I got my hubs for $80 a pair at NAPA. All in all, both sides only took me about three hours total to fix."

Hope that helps.

-Ken

 

[Broncosaurus!]

that was great, thank you.