I have a 1996 F-250HD. Recently the automatic locking hubs have been giving me trouble. When cornering in 2wd they whine and bang. They are hard to engage and even harder to disengage when I take it out of 4wd. I have decided to swap them out for a pair of lock outs. My mechanic said that to do that it requires work on the transfer case. My transfer case is a BW13-56 lever operated. I always thought that the hubs were mechanical and that it has nothing to do with my transfer case. Does this make sense?

 

Dan, Your hubs are probably dry and in need of grease. They may have some damage from being ran dry. There have been several posts in the past on front hubs and dried out grease. I agree on replacing the hubs with manual lockers. Everybody seems to be going with Warn hubs. They are very good. As for the transfer case. I am not sure. I have never heard of the transfer case needing attention when changing the hubs. Unless you have something special. Standard lever action transfer case? Strange. How well do you know this mechanic?

Jakegypsum // Ford fleet, soup to nuts.

 

He din't know for sure about the transfercase he was supposed to call around to a driveline specialist to be sure. I never even thought about the grease but i'll mention it to him. I know the mechanic very well he maintained all of our trucks so far, I trust him completely to work on it. The only reason he din't just swap out the hubs there was because he sends all of his transfercase work to a specialist; so he must be pretty sure that it requires t-case work. I will talk to him again today to see what he found out. Thanks for your reply and I'll let you know what happens.

 

I've got a 94 F150 4x4. I just wanted to share me experience with Ford's automatic hubs. From day one I had problems with the automatic hubs. First they would not lock in. After the dealership changed out the old style 5 screw hubs to the newer style 3 screw hubs(they had to change out rotors and all) it would try to lock in going down the road at 50 mph. So they changed the transfer case. They said the newer transfer cases were built looser than the older ones because the hubs were so sensitive.
About 3 months after the truck went out of warranty (figures) the hubs wouldn't lock in. After I tore the hubs apart and about 3 hours trying to figure out exactly how they worked I found that there was an aluminum ring with three fingures that rubs against a plastic ring. Well the plastic ring had worn into the aluminum one and at the time Ford didn't sell just the aluminum ring I had to buy the whole hub which wasn't to bad (about $35 ea.) along with the special graphite grease they use on the automatic hubs (I think $15 tube). But i did find out that Ford had re-engineered the hubs again, and so far I haven't had any more trouble. Also there is a small bearing inside the hub that holds the outside end of the axle that may wear out. Again just my experience.

 

Hi, the hubs on anything I have ever worked on were a direct bolt in nothing to do on the transfer case at all.
John

 

Chilton's say's to use 1.5g (0.05 oz.) Automatic Hublock Grease E1TZ-19590-A (ESL-M1C193A)(Darmez Spec. DX-123-LT), or equivalent. Dip the locking hub body into Dextron II ATF.

 

You wont have to do anything to the transfer case . All the transfer case does is provide a means of turning the front axles , Once the hubs are locked you can switch between 2H to 4H by simply pulling the lever back to 4H . I think maybe he was thinking about the driver being used to engaging the transfer with the auto hubs & you may do this with the manual hubs unlocked . Its always better for the front axles to have something to turn vs running free which would happen if you shifted from 2H to 4H w/o the hubs being locked .

 

The mechanic got it staighened out for me. I do not have to touch the transfer case. Paul, thats pretty much the same thing the driveline speacialist said. Thanks. The swap will cost me about 250.00$ if i do it myself. I am planning using warn but many man. locking hubs are just as strong. I have had warn hubs in my old truck and they have lasted 120,000 miles of rough use. Anyway, thanks for your replies.
Dan

 

I had the strongest Warn manual hubs I could get installed on my 95 F-150 after I broke the driver's side stock automatic hub. Of course, I didn't discover it until I was knee deep in snow on the side of a mountain. :-(

The total bill (including labor) came to $168 and change. I think I might shop around and try another garage, especially a 4x4 shop.