First...combed through 17 pages of search results w/out possible answer.

So.

My driver side hub on 2003 F350 has been stiff to turn. Needed 4wd yesterday and thought I got the hub turned all the way. Apparently not.

I used 4wd, turned ESOF from 4hi to 2wd but did not change the hub setting. Drove about 300 feet to the other side of the property and the front drive side starts banging loudly while backing up and pulling forward in 4wd. I only let it make the banging sound twice before I took it out of 4hi.

I backed up and moved off the hill to get to a good spot thinking I might have to do some maintenance. I heard this intermittent grinding at very low speed and only moved another 50 feet.

Today I hassled with the hub and discovered the driver side locking hub was only about 2/3rds turned.

I got a wrench and hammer and tapped it both fully locked and unlocked. I went out and tested 4WD and it appears to work properly. The noise from the hub is gone. Drove it about 1 mile and came home. No further sounds.

What do you all think?

I plan on changing to manual hub setup in the future. The truck has 128,000 on it and thus far the auto hubs have been good but I do know I have a vacuum leak as its been doing the defrost/vent thing when engaging ESOF.

 

Not sure if the hubs are servicable on a stupid duty, never had any issues with ours so haven't been into them... but if they are take apart/clean/grease/reassemble. If not, time to replace (if it continues to give you problems, my auto hubs failed and are hard to turn.. I use a large pair of channel locks to turn 'em, not weird noises out of 'em or anything.)

 

hub prolly needs to be lubbed, the poping noise was the hub prolly catchinh slightly then releasing

 

Welcome to guzzle's 4x4 Autolock Hub Lubrication Maintenance Web Page

 

as Larry said, it was probably just popping in and out of gear.
i would convert to locking hubs instead of those auto hubs.

i use a home made hub tool to lock and unlock my hubs. it also makes it a lot easier to turn stiff hubs.
it is a PVC "T" with a reducer screwed/glued into it, then slotted to fit over the hub handle

 

that shoulda been in the tools thread.... lol

 

yea, it should be, but i just remembered about it with this thread.

 

No joke. Pretty cool Tom.


Anyway, on my Stupid Duty the hubs have been tough to turn on occasion. I just pulled the hub, shot a in few squirts of grease and cycled them back and forth several times.

Seems to work but its something Ive found needed to be done about once a year.

 

lol tom to old to twist ur huds with out using a tool

 

It can be pretty tough sometimes Joe. Fingers get wet/muddy and they slip easily.

 

don't forget very cold when wet and snow covered.

it sucks to have your wet fingers freeze to the hubs when you unlock the hubs at the end of a 48 hour plow session.

 

yea i can see that good job tom

 

cold? snow? freeze? plow?

I do not understand your terminology





Tom,
that looks like a 3/4 tee - slip x slip x fip and a 3/4 male x 1" slip fittings correct?

 

I understand rain... its been doing it for 2days straight here plus off and on all week prolly 6+"

 

i can't remember what i had for lunch, and you ask me a technickal question like that ???