My truck was involved in an accident and required a replacement front axle be installed due to damage to the housing. The truck was in four wheel drive when my wife got T-boned and drove up over the median twice to avoid a head on. The shop that did the insurance work said they replace the axle with a low mileage used unit, but since then the hub switches aren't working correctly. I have taken it to them 4+ times to look at the issue and I keep telling them that the driver's side hub switch won't release, but I keep getting it back with the same problem. The most recent fix they came up with was to replace switches and electrical components. I am thinking that a vacuum leak in the hub may be to blame. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I am taking the truck back to them again this afternoon as the 1 year warranty on the repairs is up next week.

 

Personally I would just get rid of the auto's and put on a set of warn manual's if I was having issues for that long. What year truck is the axle from?

 

no idea what year the axle is from, but the truck is an '02. I am thinking that the hub switch is bad. The problem is that I don't want to fork out cash for new switches when the problem is with this replacement axle and everything worked perfectly before the accident. I replaced the vacuum lines from the knuckle to the frame after the shop had finished the insurance work. The factory lines were looking ragged and I took a shot at a cheap fix, but it didn't fix the problem.

 

Not sure if the Older Auto-Hub axle works the same but 2006 (coil-sprung front) has Auto-Hub's too & my right side hub doesn't Un-Lock all the way on its own so ive By-Passed the Auto System.

When system is activated electronically it allows vacuum to lock your Hub's in & when de-activated the Hub is supposed to un-lock on its own (because vacuum is no longer engaging it) so iam thinking your 1 Hub is junk also.

Your lucky though its Cheap/Easy to convert to Warn Hub's on the older Leaf-Sprung Fronts, my 2006 requires what they call a Free-Spin Kit that cost a couple thousand $ which is why i figured out a way to just bypass the Auto for now

 

Your hubs are made by warn...

Sent from my Telegraph using IB AutoGroup

 

I am unsure if the shop put the hubs from my original axle on the new one or if the hubs are from the donor axle. Either way I am thinking a salvage yard axle may have some issues if it has been sitting around and my original switches may have internal damage form my wife having to drive over the median @ 35mph a couple of times while in 4WD. Either way the 4WD needs to work as it did before the accident even if the shop keeps throwing parts at it. Luckily, I have a company truck that I drive daily allowing me to give up this one for repairs.

 

A constant vacuum to your hub is not what holds them in 4wd, there is one long vacuum pulse that occurs when you shift into 4wd that causes the hubs to lock into the "Lock" position, then when you shift to 2wd there is a short vacuum pulse that causes the hubs to release from the locked position.

But I do agree that the problem ftowelding is having is a bad hub seal or other internal problem with that hub.

To manually disengage a hub, you just need to rotate the dial on the hub from "Auto" to "Lock" back and forth 2 or 3 times then leave it on "Auto".

 

Yes I figured out the auto to manual lock to auto move to get it to disengage, but I am gonna take it in and get it fixed on State Farm's dime not mine. Thanks all for the input and advice. I had the feeling the problem was with the hub switch not the vacuum system as everything worked prior to the axle swap.