Hello,

I have been having issues with my 4wheel drive working. The front driveline turns when i engage the transfer case but wheels wouldnt turn. jacked up the front and removed rear driveline, disassembled the hubs and reassembled then and they lock and both wheels turn with transfer case engaged. the problem is i can stop the front rotors by hand and the front driveline still spins. can someone help me understand if i am missing something.

thanks,

jeff

 

If you have both front tires in the air and are spinning the driveshaft, often both front tires will turn. But it's perfectly normal to be able to stop one tire and still be able to turn the driveshaft. Is that's what you are talking about? If so, what's happening is the front differential is working. If you pay attention to the other front tire you'll see that when you stop the one the other will start turning twice as fast (assuming the driveshaft keeps turning the same speed).

By the way, while you have the rear driveshaft out go ahead and put the front wheels back on the ground and try to drive it. You should be able to drive around in front wheel drive if everything is working correctly.

Having said that, I'm assuming your '88 has a fixed output on the rear of the transfer case and a slip joint in the driveshaft. Newer trucks have a slip yoke in the transfer case output shaft and you do not want to run one of those without the rear driveshaft in place. Too likely you'll spit your slip yoke out on the ground and puke out all your transfer case lube.

 

Thanks Bob,

I also noticed when i disassembled the hubs the locking gears were not in the same oreientation. The gear i am talking about is the one that the hub lock pushes in when the hub is turned to lock. one side is flush and the other side has a recess. can you tell me which is the correct way to install them. Its all stock.

 

Do you have automatic hubs or the kind you need to turn a dial by hand to lock / unlock? I don't have much personal experience with the automatic ones other than taking them off the one truck I had with them and replacing them with manuals.

If you have Warn manual hubs (I think Warn makes the stock Ford hubs with the red plastic dial), I'm pretty sure there's a recess on the outer side of the inner splined sleeve to fit over the snap ring on the axle stub. But I'm going from memory there which is often dangerous.

 

i have manual hubs with the red dial. tried to find a good exploded view but no luck.

 

I Googled "Warn standard hub exploded view" and got this (if the link works):
https://www.google.com/search?q=warn...VoZRU9K00z8%3D

Like I said, I'm pretty sure the OE Ford hubs are Warn Standards so that ought to be what you have.

 

Hi Bob,

I found the problem. The lock ring according to the diagram is the one i was talking about. the passenger side was in backwards. I flipped the lock with the recess out just like the drawing it turns out. put the tires on and drove off. 4wheel drive is working now. thanks a bunch.

Jeff

 

Glad to hear it!