I have a piece of a warn locking hub that is stuck in the wheel hub. It is stuck in a Ford F-350 super duty SRW 6.8 V10 with a Dana 50 8 lug front axle. Everything seems stock, but we bought this beast late in its life. I have removed the locking hub cap, the inner locking gear, and the metal retaining ring that holds the outer gear in place. The other side just falls apart as it should at this point.

I have tried building a custom puller utilizing the 6 hex cap screws (that attach the locking hub cap) to pull in on two 1/8" thick c channels held off with a 1/2" bolt pushing in the middle of the c channels on the axle. In one case, I sheared off the bolt, and bent the c channels. I tried it again and that time broke several of the hex cap screws off.

I have ran through penetrating oil, wd-40, propane (for a torch) and carb and brake cleaner as I tried heating up the hub while applying penetrating oil and letting things sit, then spraying out rust and such with carb or brake cleaner to loosen things up, then repeating the process over and over again. I have done this process several times. It worked on the center where the axle goes through the inner gear, so now the inner gear is now loose from the axle. But the outside is still suck like no other.

Lightly hitting on it with a 3lb sledge to crack something lose has done nothing, and left me struggling not to beat it much harder with a bigger hammer with a longer handle.

As a note, it took weeks to get the center locking gear to fall out after doing the oil, heat, and spray cleaner process, then driving with it locked in, and it took two attempts and hours to get the cap off from stuck hex cap screws, several which I had to drill out in the end after even an impact screw driver would not work.

The U-Joint is bad, and I can't lock in the 4WD which is problematic at the dump and on job sites when it is muddy especially when we are towing a maxed out 5k single axle trailer that wants to dig in to the mud too. I am at my wits end with this thing.

ANY IDEAS!?!?

 

sounds like it is time to pull the entire axle out on that side..you have to anyway to get the axle u-joint replaced anyway.

Take the whole thing out and do it on the bench.

 

Call Warn and see if you can talk to a tech guy there. It's remotely possible that they can offer and idea you haven't had.

 

I thought about taking the whole thing out, but I couldn't see any advantages when it came to getting that gear out. It would only fix the U-joint. The axle has a circlip on it that would prevent me from pushing the axle out to gain access to the rear to push the gear out.

Trying to get a hold of warn might help. Didn't know they had a line for that. Our expectations of customer service are at an all time low.

I also thought, right after posting, it might be inexpensive enough to build a stronger puller with thicker steel, longer hex cap screws, and a bigger center bolt. I think the hex cap screws broke because the puller bent. It just takes time to source the pieces and build it and money to buy it as I don't have scrap laying around that will suffice.

Just trying to salvage the wheel hub.

 

Finally got it!

I drilled out the socket cap screw holes with a 3/8" steel bit all the way through into the wheel hub cavity behind the locking hub gear. The metal was very soft.. possibly aluminum? This took away about 95% of the metal thickness, then I finished off the rest by drilling sideways towards the hub and abrading the remaining metal until it was almost gone. You eventually will see holes where the splines come in and the metal is thinner. I did this in three places.

Finally, when the metal was thin enough at all the holes I drilled, I took a scrap piece of metal and hammered the hub pieces in until the remaining bits of metal holding it all together cracked and broke. After all this, I still could not pull the locking gear out as one; I had to pull it out in pieces with some coercion.

The trick is that you have to drill through the retaining ring on the back of the hub if you need to take the pieces out one by one. (The ring that holds the inner gear into the outer gear). This allows the broken pieces to slip forward one by one while the inner gear on the axle stays until all the pieces are out. If you do not drill through that ring and it breaks into pieces, you will have to pull the whole thing out as one unit; something that was not possible in my case.

I know this rarely happens, but I figured I'd post my solution so someone in the future might have another avenue to try. The best solution I have seen before this was a person who literally cut the entire wheel hub and locking gear which of course ruined the wheel hub.

 

Great, glad you got it.

 

Happened to me years ago. They corrode. I had to crack it and pull with a puller.. Warn premium to the rescue..The other side fell out..go figure.


Dick