Just had my '06 hubs replaced last week. As I had converted to a manual transfer case prior to that, I wondered if they had replaced mine with manual or electronic hubs. I was told that the was only one kind of hub (no manual or electronic, just "hub"). Also, I was told there is no maintenance on these hubs. True? Thanks.

 

My 08 is all manual 4x4. The hub says "LOCK" or "FREE". My 06 was esof and the hub said "LOCK" or "AUTO". So from what I know there are 2 different hubs but I'm sure the auto ones can and are meant to function like manual hubs. Someone else my chime in differently but I remember seeing 2 different parts when looking at replacing my 06 hubs.

 

While you can't (easily) take these hubs apart like the older ones, I'm not sure I would say no maintenance. Sure wouldn't hurt anything to take them out and clean the old grease off and put a fresh coat on once in a while. Also the rubber o-ring and paper seal won't last forever, they're not as critical on a true manual hub but they do keep stuff out.

 

I thought there were 3 kinds of hubs: manual, auto, full-time. Something has to turn to allow the axles to freewheel. GM, Dodge, others have auto hubs with manual or electronic transfer case. Ford has the ESOF with auto hubs that have the manual override.

They didn't ask you what you wanted and./ or you didn't specify? It doesn't say anything on the hub? Get the make-model number and Google it. The only "just hub" I can think of would be some kind of auto-locking unit that engages via movement of the front axles.

 

There are 2 types of hubs. Manual hubs came on trucks equipped with MSOS (Manual Shift On Stop) 4 wheel drive systems.

Automatic hubs came on ESOF (Electronic Shift On the Fly) systems.

As MDSuperDuty stated, if your hubs have LOCK and AUTO they are ESOF hubs. If your hubs have LOCK and FREE they are MSOS hubs.

Yes, the hubs do need maintenance. They need to be pulled off, cleaned and greased very lightly every so often.

If a dealer is telling you it doesn't matter which one is used, find another dealership. If someone is telling you there are three types of hubs on these trucks, file that tidbit under BS and walk away.

 

@redford: I assume you mean only 2 kinds for the F-250: manual and ESOF auto. I said there were 3 kinds of hubs although perhaps the straight 4WD on older trucks is really just a non-hub ie. hubs (free-wheeling hubs) are added to that config. My 47 Marmon-Herrington has this - just flat caps bolted on.

There are several hits when you search "F-250 auto hubs" but when you get into the listing they only show hubs for F-150, Explorer, etc.

Mid-70s Dodges & GMs I've owned had a "full-time 4WD system" (the transfer cases had the "Lo, Lo-loc", ... settings) but I never understood if these were auto hubs or true full-time systems. It was common to convert to manual hubs and there was a clear reduction in road noise and improvement in MPG.

 

The outside of mine (visible from the outside) is the same as ever. It's just a switch and was reused. It still says Lock and Auto just the same. I had already converted the old ESOF hubs to manual by capping the vacuum tubes.The real question here is whether the inside parts are the same or is there some difference? If I tear into a hub, do I find all hubs to be the same or are there different parts between manual and ESOF?

 

Yes, there are differences - namely the vacuum diaphram in the ESOF hub. They'll function the same as a true manual hub by locking them though. If they actually replaced your old ones w/ new ESOF hubs I'd be a little ticked that I paid quite a bit extra for something I didn't need. Not only that was there a problem w/ your old hubs, did they even need to be replaced? Those hubs aren't cheap to start with. I'm confused though, you said it's just a switch - are you talking about the hub itself or the switch on the dash? I thought you converted to a manual shift transfer case?

 

I did change to manual. This is actually a conversion from 2wd to 4wd, so there was never a switch on the dash. I'm referring to the switch on the hub itself. That switch is really not the hub, but rather the switch that turns the hub off and on. Look at Ford's schematics on fordparts.com. It is a separate part. You buy a hub, you don't get that. You use your old "switch" on your new hub.

 

This is the Ford Truck Enthusiast website and the Super Duty forum. 4 wheel drive hubs come in 2 flavors. We don't care about Chubbys, Fiat Dog Ram or Chubbys with lock washers (GMC).

 

Where did you take the truck to have the hubs replaced?

What exactly did you tell them to do? Did you just tell them to "replace the hubs" or did you actually tell them to put manual hubs on it?

If you just told them to replace the hubs, they would most likely replace them with exactly what was there unless you had specified otherwise.

Of course, a good shop would have actually diagnosed the hubs as being bad before replacing them.

 

I just told them to change them. There's no doubt as they were bad. There was tremendous noise from the front end which I blamed on the left hub. Changing it out improved the noise, but it didn't go away until the right was change a week later. Now noise free and I picked up 2 mpg as a bonus. Now it drives great and shifts to 4wd and locks in with no issues. I watched a video on this site that showed how to dismantle and repack the "manual" hubs, as if there were a difference. I'm just trying to learn whether there is a difference in the hubs as far as parts and when I need to consider repacking them.

 

I don't believe that's correct. Look at Part #3B396 Wheel Locking Collar. I've never bought one but when I was looking to see if a part was serviced separately on them, Ford pulled a new hub off the shelf and it had the **** (switch) attached. As I stated earlier these hubs aren't meant to be disassembled (but they can) like the old ones and nothing on them is serviced separately, aside from seals.

I've not seen a video, but look at this link: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/9...with-pics.html This shows careful disassembly of the vacuum hubs like you have. If the video is of the 2005 and up true manual hubs then there's your differences. FWIW, I've had mine out a couple times and I just sprayed them down w/ brake cleaner to wash the old grease out and then applied new. There wasn't any need to take them apart. I've got the true manual hubs though so I don't know if the vacuum stuff would interfere w/ washing it out like that.

 

Sorry, didn't see the first part of your post until just now. I'm not sure what we are disagreeing about. Part 3B396 is the "switch" I referred to and the hub is part 1104. I assure you, you can buy them separately and that they do come apart as I have 2 brand new 1104s and 2, 6 year old 3B396s rolling every day.

 

My apologies, you are correct, 1104 is the entire wheel hub, 3B396 is the hub lock. I thought you meant you could just buy the plastic **** that says lock and free (or auto) separate from the rest of the hub lock assembly. Typically when people on here say hub they mean the locking hub but technically you are correct.

Back to your original question though - if you're asking if there's a difference in the actual wheel hub between the manual and ESOF trucks the answer is no. The only difference is in the hub locks themselves.