Hi all. Been lurking around here for awhile but never post. Had an issue with my 2017 F250 the other day which gave me an idea I’d thought I’d share to help anyone else who might get stuck like I did.

If you have front auto ESOF hubs or manual locking hubs it’s not a matter of if they will break but when. And when they do break it will be at the worst time possible- likely in the middle of nowhere in extreme conditions. I thought my newer 2017 was immune. Nope. Same garbage in my ‘new’ truck too.

The other night I was heading home in a snow storm and I live in the mountains. With steep grades and roads that the city doesn’t plow ice accumulates pretty easy. The snow will melt a little during the day then refreeze again at night. Add more snow on top and it’s near impossible to drive on. I was heading up the mountain and up my driveway in 4wd when I heard a dramatic pop half way up and I thought I broke my t-case. The truck then went RWD and lost traction. It then began to slide backwards and into the rock wall next to my driveway down to the bottom of the hill. When I was sliding backwards I threw it into reverse to try to gain control on the way down but the driveway was like glass and I was just along for the ride. Of course the side of the truck hit all that so I was completely livid. I was so pissed about it that I left the truck at the bottom of the hill in disgrace and walked home.



The next morning I went back to the truck and was unable to get it up the driveway and was stuck in the valley below. The truck is worthless RWD and wouldn’t go anywhere. I found what broke was not the t-case but the front wheel hub lock on the passenger side. Took it apart and was pretty disappointed about how weak that system looked. The whole unit disintegrated in the hub. Bearing rollers, plastic parts, springs and clips all mangled in the hub. It took over an hour to fish it all out.





Took it apart and found a way to piece it together to allow power to the front so I could get it home.

I took the 2 pieces below and put them together. The top piece splines on the shaft and the bottom piece splines into the hub. Locked together they transfer the power from the shaft to the hub.





I then put them back in the hub (after I cleaned the hub out) so I could get 4WD power back just to move it a short distance. This worked and the 2 pieces never popped apart. As long as the load was applied and consistent they never popped loose. It made it all the way up the hill just like in the pic below.



After that worked and I got the truck home I thought that I could clean those pieces and weld them together to make an emergency lock if I break another in the future. I figure it will likely happen again because the design is very flawed so might as well be prepared. I also welded 2 nuts so I can attach bolts to it to make removal and install easier (don’t have to fish it out with a screw driver). Polished it a little and tapered the splines to make install easier too.





Slides in and out with ease using the bolts as leverage.



Since my new hub lock is on order and won’t show up for another week I put short bolts on it that come up to the cap (to prevent the lock from moving forward and popping off the splines) like below.



This way the cap holds it in so it won’t go anywhere.

I’ve been driving the truck like this and it works! I kind of expected the assembly to push through the plastic cap but it hasn’t and has been holding up great. Since this side is locked all the time now with the welded stub in there I manually locked the other side. I can still
drive 4wd or 2wd with the switch on the dash because the t-case switching is unaffected. The hubs just no longer disengage which doesn’t allow the front drive parts to float when in 2wd. At this point who cares. This is a temporary emergency thing not a long term thing.

So if you have a broken lock laying around I’d highly recommend taking it apart and tacking the 2 pieces together like I did and keep it with you so you can get yourself out of a pinch when this junk lets you down in the worst way possible. I always keep emergency tools with me in the truck and this is going in it so I don’t get stranded again. I know a lot of owners break these things off-road in the middle of nowhere so probably a good idea.

Thanks again to this great group and glad I was able to contribute a little. I know this may seem useless but until you break one, you won’t understand.

 

Great write up Jack, thanks! I wonder if this issue could come up in the few 2017 models that still had the optional manual t-case? I can't reacall if the manual t-case went away in 2018 or 19....

 

I would imagine both t-case options would keep the same hub locks up front.

 

Great field repair! Time for some Warn hubs now!

 

Thanks for sharing. Tough break. Good repair work. Your photos and writeup are very helpful.

 

Great temporary fix. Thanks for sharing! Brings back memories. I did something similar way back on a 1968 F250. It came with some kind of cheap azz hubs, yup blew one, ordered some new WARN’s and welded the old one to run while waiting for the new to arrive.
Old saying........if it has t**ts or wheels, sooner or later it will give you trouble!

 

thats some fine back yard engineering jack. stuck at the bottom of the driveway you must of had that
'so close yet so far away' feeling

 

Thats a great view at your place. What state are you located in.

 

Thanks for the kind words all!

wylecoyote, I’m in Colorado.

 

Are you going back to stock or upgrading to Warn locking hubs?

 

From what I read online it looks like the Warn locks also have their fair share of issues. I got a new pair of OEM Ford auto locks online for $100 each so I decided to go for it and got both sides. When they break at least I know what to do now I guess...

 

X2. Great explanation, and nice pictures!👍

 

I traded in my 02' Excursion last year and they still had the original hubs that worked great.

 

I’ve been slowly switching all of my trucks at work over to the warn premiums as they go as well as my personal truck which is a 2020 but I figured proactive instead of reactive on that one lol. My 2008 F-250 had around 60k miles and my 2016 F-250 just failed at 38k miles this fall. How many miles do you have on you original hubs?

 

I have 180k. Honestly it was my fault they broke. The truck was talking to me and trying to tell me they were about to fail. The auto stopped working and I had to switch them manually recently. I checked and the vacuum was working up to the hub, so something was wrong in the hub. Didn’t have the time to check it, snow storm hit, and then hard lessons were learned.