I am afraid I may have really messed up. I do a lot of serious off road work with my trusty 76 hiboy f-250, so when the spiders in my d44 hd front diff got chewed up I decided to take a perfect low mileage replacement axle and get it welded up. The welder who did this for me is a master craftsman and he has done several of these for his kids mud boggers etc. so the job is flawless. I have a fresh d60 trac-lok in the back and 33 in. mud ta's. Both axles are 4.10:1 ratios. The traction with this truck is just unreal! You just about can't get stuck. That's the good part....Now for the bad news. Unless you are in some really sloppy mud you can't steer this thing. I have a power steering conversion which normally works just fine but lock the hubs in now and hit the gas and it goes wherever the wheels are pointed - period. I'm a pretty strong guy but it's almost impossible to arm wressle 500+ ft/lbs of torque. The other problem is trying to unlock the hubs after going offroad. Sometimes it only takes 3or4 tries but usually it turns into a five or ten minute ordeal of backing up, going foreward and trying to find just the right spot to take the bind off the hubs. I don't need to know what an idiot I am (I think i've got that figured out) I just need Help! Would more steering dampers or a bigger pump help? Should I lube my hubs better? It gets 50 below here so I try to avoid using much grease. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

good luck locked front axles suck unlesss you go straight all the time I'd try the bigger pump or get aother axle

 

Unlock one hub when you need to turn.

 

Or if you have an NP205 transfer case .... twin stick it so you can use 2wd lo in turns.