I recently had some noise from one front hub, and I learned that these hubs are completely take apartable for repair.

Remove the snap ring and pull the hub out of the wheel hub. Place it **** end down on the bench (so the innards are up). With a screw driver, remove the blue colored snap ring from the inside of the outside rim of the hub. Don't remove the center snap ring. Turn the hub over tap the entire center innards out of the hub. Remove the outside drive dog from the center spline portion. Remove the springs from the hub housing. The white nylon piece at the bottom of the hub bore will got out the **** end with the ****.

**** o-ring replacement: Turn the hub **** just past lock with a pair of pliers. It can then be popped out of the hub housing. Remove the old o-ring and install a new one from an equipment dealer or autor parts place (they will be able to match one up). Lube up the new o-ring with grease and put it on the ****. Re-install the **** and turn it to "unlock".

Remove the snap ring from the center splined hub. Remove the top washer and the white nylon bearing housing from the splined hub. Grease the bearing. Reverse assembly and re-install the snap ring.

Lightly grease all the parts and re-assemble in reverse order.

This whole process takes about 30 minutes or less for both hubs. And, you don't have to buy a replacement hub because the o-ring failed. Sorry if this has been posted before, but I could not find it in a search.

 

What year model hub are you referencing?
There are different hubs on 05+ trucks than the 99-04 trucks.

 

Sorry... This is on my 99 F-250. I had seen questions about this hub asked a few times in searches, but know one ever really narrowed it down that I could see. But if it is redundant, my search skills need to get better.

 

Don't feel bad, you need some luck along with perserverance to get a decent search in here. Not a strong point of FTE. Those fixes are in here though.

 

The main part I was not able to find was how to take the dial off and change/ grease the o-ring. Every post I found said that it was not removable. This includes the great video on manual hub service in the tech folder. Most people just fill the empty hub housing with oil and hope it frees the o-ring, when in fact it can be fully serviced. Hope it helps, anyway.

 

The dial O-ring? Tke hub off, drill hole in dial, set hub in 1" of penetrating oil overnight, put screw back in hole.

 

Unless the o-ring broke, bunched up, and jammed up the dial. In which case it has to be replaced. It is pretty easy to just take it apart, and you don't have to wait overnight, either.

 

Yeah that would be boring. Kind of like watching paint dry. Tell us how you take the dial apart.

 

Disassemble the hub from the inside out. Remove the gears, springs, etc, as has already been outlined many times. This will leave a white plastic (or nylon) cup in the bottom of the hub bore, which is the back side of the dial.

Then turn the hub over. With a pair of pliers, turn the dial past lock (it does go past the indicator now) till it stops, or about 1/8 to 1/4" past the dot mark. Then either pull the dial out of the with pliers from the outside, or push the white cup through from the inside. You will then see the locking "dogs" on the dial that hold it in(molded into the rear of the dial. You can source replacement o-rings for the dial from a tractor dealership (they can match one by size to be pretty close). Lube the new o-ring with grease, and reverse diassembly.

This makes me appreciate these hubs a lot more. They are really simple to service!

 

Wow, we all just keep learning. Reps given!

 

WOW-new poster here. Ive looked and looked could never find the trick for removing that silly dial on manual hubs. I thought it was once assembled at factory not coming back apart. Yesterday I almost used a knife to cut the lil ears off that plastic cup.
Too simple Thanks sotwclarinetguy !
This info should be easier to find.
Replaced uni bearing yesterday utilizing a lot of info from this site. Putting back on the impossible to turn hubs, no matter how I cleaned or lubed was discoraging. Once apart I may add the lube hole. But Ill probaly sit there a while just putting dial in & out-cause I can!

Mark

 

I'm guessing from the title of this thread that the hubs being discussed here are "manual" and differen't from the vacuum or manual actuated hubs on on my 2000 F350 with electronic shift on the fly 4WD?

I can't turn mine past LOCK even when disassembled. When I get all the internal parts out I see a black rubber(ish) diaphram in the bottom of the hub bore (behind the dial face). I want to get the dials off because I have a shredded o-ring on one dial that is binding up and making the dial hard to turn. Will my hubs come apart as described if I put enough torque on the dial to get it turned past LOCK or do I need to look at differen't options?

 

It's for shift on fly. Soak everything in penetrating oil overnight before you work on it.