That's plenty of vacuum. Time to check the 3 seals on each side and clean/grease hubs.
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Brent Bradley Scenic photographer and former mechanic with car and motorcycle drag racing background. Also, avid snowmobiler.......retired. The Ex; custom mudflaps
Which 3 are you referring to? I had the hubs off a few weeks ago and greased/cleaned them. I also replaced the outer seal at that point as well as the clips. Thanks!
The black o ring in the outer hub, the yellow o ring on the inner wheel hub and, the lip seal in the knuckle.
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Brent Bradley Scenic photographer and former mechanic with car and motorcycle drag racing background. Also, avid snowmobiler.......retired. The Ex; custom mudflaps
Im pulling almost 20 mm hg in vacuum to lock and unlock both sides.
Just to make sure we're clear on a couple of things, 20mm of vacuum is only about 0.75 inches of vacuum, which is pretty much immeasurable on most gauges. I'll assume you meant 20 inches, which is normal like Brent said.
Are you saying your vacuum pump and solenoid are sending 20 inches to the hubs (you hooked the gauge up to the rubber line at the knuckle and then turned the switch to"4x4") or you manually applied vacuum to the hubs and they held at 20 inches? If both of those are true, then your hubs should be locking. If not, then they have to be defective.
When you disconnect the line at the knuckle and hook the vacuum pump to it, you should be able to apply vacuum, around 15 inches or so, and have the hub lock. You can often hear it click when it does. You can now release the vacuum and the hub should stay locked. Applying vacuum at a lower level will make it cycle back off.
If you pull the hub lock out and look in the end where the stub shaft goes, you'll see a piece of plastic. This is the portion that moves with a diaphragm and latches the hub in the locked or unlocked position when vacuum is applied. You can reach in with your finger and manually click it on or off, like a retractable ball point pen. Spin the splined collar to see if it is locked to the outer part of the hub. If you can get it to lock and unlock with a little bit of fiddling, it's probably OK.
Want to drive to Michigan and I'll fix it for you?
Sorry on the measurements, inches not mm. Anyways, I was getting 20 inches at the hub knuckle, both going into 4x4 and out of 4x4. I will hook the vacuum gauge up to them and see if theyll lock in that way. Whereabouts in Michigan haha!
I picked up a mity vac today and attached it at the knuckles. The drivers side holds no pressure at all, the passenger side bleeds out. Im assuming that since ive serviced the hubs im into these other 3 seals. Does anybody have a good writeup or something with pictures regarding replacement of these. Or am i further ahead to just take it to the dealership at this point? Thanks!
Go to the tech folder and look up ball joint replacement. Just follow the steps all the way to pulling the axle out, thats where you will find the last big axle seal. I just replaced my ball joints this week and bought my seals in a kit from FTE Parts guy which is a sponsor on this site for $130.00. Just so you know you will have to make the tool to install the big knuckle seal, it has to be driven in. I just bought one online I believe from Tooltopia.com , the part number is OTC 6695 for $60.00. Make sure you clean up all the surfaces where the seals go. I also bought a $20.00 three jaw gear puller to get the hub off, makes that part of the job alot easier. Good luck
You can make the seal installer with pipe, cap, and flange (post in here) but you will have to cut the flange down a bit (to 3 7/8"?) put grease or something on the knuckle lip seal so it goes in easily.
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Brent Bradley Scenic photographer and former mechanic with car and motorcycle drag racing background. Also, avid snowmobiler.......retired. The Ex; custom mudflaps
Yes you will need two of each of those seals and also the o-rings that go on the auto locking hub. Part number 4C3Z-1K106-AA is a kit. You only need one of these because it comes with two o-rings and one metal retainer ring. As long as one of your retainer rings is good and can be reused. Alot of guys on this site have made that seal driver but I just bought one one line. If you get the seals from FTE Parts Guy all the seals you will need come as a package deal, and the shipping was fast. Hope this was some help.
You can make the seal installer with pipe, cap, and flange (post in here) but you will have to cut the flange down a bit (to 3 7/8"?) put grease or something on the knuckle lip seal so it goes in easily.
I made the seal and had it ground down. It cost me less than $30 total (parts and a few bucks to the machinist), but it took a bit of time to get it all done. The home-made tool works like a charm, but you have to be careful that you don't hit off-center because you can easily install the seal cocked at an angle. Not to mention that I did scratch the surface of the seal during installation (it didn't affect the seal, but it did scratch it).
If you are willing to spend a little extra dough and want a real seal driver, Bob has one for sale:
Had I known about this before I started, I would have spend the extra $$$ for this. Since you have to tear down a lot (including seals) to get to this seal (and pull the axle out to replace), I would have made the investment to make sure that $30+ seal is on correctly.
Just my .02
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That is the same one I bought. It is heavy duty and has the lip on the outer edge to let you know when the seal is in place, worked great for me. $30.00 more than the home made one was worth it to me, now I have it for next time and there will be a next time in the future for ball joints.
I purchased a genuine ford seal installer off of ebay for a 30 bill. Seemed like the best way to go seeing as how all the aftermarket ones i found were 40 bucks. Seals and all are on order, hopefully everything comes apart as planned!
Just make sure you clean up all the surfaces that the seals come in contact with. You would hate to have to pull it apart again because of a vacuum. Good luck and let us know how it went.
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