I leave mine locked in for about 4 moths straight and I never had an issue. I don't notice a huge drop in mileage but I am sure it is there. If mine ever seem hard to unlock, I just grip it with a pair of pliers to help me get a little more leverage on it.

 

So mine says in manual that I can select Auto. Is this a half way between lock and not locked?

 

Auto is all the way anticlockwise. Its the same as free on a manual hub only it allows vacuum to engage the hub whn it works.

 

Ok, why have an auto and slick position? Why not just auto hubs with no lock setting, or is it a manual feature incase of a failure!

 

Wait, your women wear panties? Talk about a waste of time, that alone saves me like 30 seconds

 

It is a failsafe to lock them when your vac system fails. Rangers used a similar pulse hub design for a few years but didn't get the benefit of a manual override...a lot of them are modded to be manually engaged. On the f250's and up, auto hubs were an option and the manual hubs look the same with the exception of having "free" instead of "auto"

 

I dont recall any vacuum anything on my front axle. Is it possible that the owners manual is simply covering an option I do not have?
I sorta thought that it worked like a ratchet so to speak. When back wheels started slipping the drive unit would be all spinning faster than front wheels and the axles would engage the wheels. When all else was equal then there was no drive applied to front wheels.

 

Nope, its a traditional 4wd. No a ratcheting auto style. Auto on the hubs simply means that you shouldn't have to get out and lock the hubs when you turn the dial to 4wd. All excursions came with auto hubs. The vac line feeds into the back of the knuckle towards the top and relies on the seals in the knuckle and hub, and the reason they get changed to manual hubs a lot.

 

Why did they use velcro on the back of the second row seats to hold the flaps? I have to use bungee cords to hold them up.

 

great question!

 

I drilled two holes an inch apart and used a zip tie to do the job permanently

 

Here are my pre-purchase questions:

1. Does crap build up in the coolant resevoir? The truck in question is a 2000 5.4 Ex, runs fine, pulls fine, but there's goop in the coolant can, didn't hear anything that sounded like a blown head though..

2. The little console thing on the ceiling, is there a good way to figure out why it doesn't work, or is there something more productive I can swap in there.

3. When I turned the steering wheel, the truck made a noise, like a moan .. could the steering box be going?

Thanks

 

Concerning the console:
If you push real hard on the buttons will it come on momentarily?
This was a common problem on explorers and I cannot see Ford doing anything radically different on the Ex.
If you take it apart ( easy ) you will find a surface mounted resistor on circuit board that has broken free of it's solder joint.
Very easy fix.

 

I have stock rims now & slightly larger than stock tires, stock suspension, no lift....


Ideally I would like 20" rims & 35" tires..... possible to do that without adding a lift since I live near the city and do have to park in parking garages at times....

 

Only if you want to lose a lot of turning radius (larger radius) and cut a lot of inner fender out and move the bumper forward.