I have a 2002 Ford F-350 with Warn front locking hubs. I went to lock my front hubs in, the one on the passenger side clicks and locks, the one on the drivers side just turns freely, won't click or lock. Would it be just the hub **** that just broke or would it be something inside the complete hub assembly?

 

Hard to say until you remove and disassemble the offending hub.

 

Never worked on locking hubs before, do I just unscrew the little allen head bolts holding the cap on and it will pull off? Then what should I look for?

 

Yes, unscrew the Allen screws and pull the hub selector off. Inside, you'll find a large gear type assembly, one inside of another. How your hub works is that when you twist the selector to the "Lock" position, it pushes on the inner gear, which engages the spindle.

If your selector **** is spinning freely, chances are something has sheared off inside. It'll be impossible to miss.

There are two things you need to remove to extract your locking assembly; a snap ring on the end of the spindle, and a ring that sits in a groove on the ID of the hub itself. After that, you should be able to remove your locking assembly and replace it.

Just a heads up, when I broke my locking assembly, I had to buy a whole new set. They wouldn't sell just the one part I broke.

 

I'll pull the hub selector off and see what I find, just what I need before Christmas If worst comes to worst and I need to plow my driveway before I can get another assembly is there anyway I can lock it in manually and leave it in 4 wheel? Or can I just lock the passenger side in and plow or will it do damage to my front differential.

 

With the hub not functioning, you will be unable to engage drive power to that wheel. In theory, yes, the other side will still be receiving power, but it's not something that I would consider a viable option. Swapping out the locking hubs can be done in less than half an hour; just hit the auto parts store and get it done.

 

I think that if both sides don't lock, then your diff will wind up just sending all the power to the unlocked axle [ie, you won't get any additional traction from your front wheels]. No damage, just spinning axle doing nothing.

If it's a locking-diff, then you would get power to the passenger wheel. It should be fine, but I wouldn't do it for anything length of time.

 

I took out the screws and pulled the cap off the hub, doesn't look like anything is broke. The gear that fits inside the wheel hub looks fine, no teeth missing, plenty of grease, and it pushes in and out perfectly. I looked inside the cap I pulled off and can't see anything broke in there either, but when I turn the locking **** I don't see anything moving inside the cap. Would this mean the the **** is broke? Can I just buy a new cap?

 

Question, inside my cap is a black plastic piece and it's sitting on a spring, I can push this plastic piece up and down, if I turn the **** nothing happens. If I had a new cap and I was to turn the **** what would I see, would I see the plastic piece inside moving back and forth?

 

That piece you're seeing is what gets pressed against the locking assembly to engage the spindle. It should move back and forth when you move the selector from "Free" to "Lock". I would say that the selector mechanism broke somehow.

To my knowledge, you cannot buy just the selector cap. Unless you were to find one secondhand, I believe your only option is to purchase a new set of locking hubs.

 

The piece I'm seeing in the hub cap itself I can push back and forth. Right now that piece is all the way out, but, I can push it freely back in with my fingers. Does this mean if I put the cap back on it will be in the lock position and lock my hub?

 

No. If you can push it freely with your fingers, it's not functioning properly. It should only move when the switch is turned from one position to the other.

As you've already described, it doesn't function as intended when it's installed on the vehicle. That means it needs to be replaced.

 

I think I found just one new locking hub on ebay, I'm waiting for reply to make sure it'll fit my truck, I'll let you know. Thanks for everything