I recently bought a '05 F-150 with the 5.4l 4WD. XLT. Its my first "push button 4WD". I had the truck jacked up and noticed it was hard to turn the front wheels. Further inspection I noticed the tires turning the front U joints through the differential and into the front drive shaft. I jacked the whole truck off the ground and ran the 4WD through all the modes; Everything seems to work when it should, and not drive the front when its in 2WD. I was under the impression that the front hubs dissengaged when it was in 2WD. Is everything working normal or should I be concerned about the front driveline turning all the time? If this is wrong, please guide me to correcting the problem. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

I believe the hubs are vaccum controlled..They use the vaccum to disengage for 2 wheel drive so if the truck is off they would be no vaccum causing the hubs to default into 4 wheel drive.

 

If I understand what your saying; The front driveline will not spin when the truck is running because the vacuum dissengages the hubs. So if I jack my truck up again, start it up, and turn the front wheels; The hubs and diff. should not turn? Thanks for the info.

 

motor on = hubs disengaged...unless you select 4x4

vacuum goes away when motor is off and then the hubs will engage by default until the next time you start the truck

 

Thanks again guys for the info. Does anybody know what years they used this system from/to?

 

04-to current

 

Did ford re-design the vacuum hubs now to default to "locked" when the vacuum isn't working? If so, that's a step in the right direction.
I always had issues with my 98 ranger with PVH hubs until someone finally made manual hubs for it. The default to unlocked until vacuum is applied.
Do manual hubs for the 04+ F150 exist yet?

 

no. I called up Borg Warner 2yrs back and they said the market didn't have enough demand for a manual hub design. So nothing would be coming from them. Borg Warner previously made all the 4x4 componenets for Ford...still does I beleive

Warn might have developed something, but it's unlikely since the IWE is pretty intricate

 

Thanks for all the information. Glad I asked because the system seems to work opposite from what I thought.