I have a persistent leak on my left ESOF hub, despite careful disassembly, cleaning and replacing the vacuum seal and the o-rings IAW my Ford Service Manual. I may finally have to replace one of my original 1C3Z-3B396-CB hublocks and I have the "special tool #205-795" on it's way to me for testing. The truck is a 2001 F250.

So I started looking for replacement hublocks. It looks like about 99% of them are knockoffs, and one listing I found on Amazon stated "Country of Origin: China" on the Bing link, but did not show country of origin in the listing--probably because people like me won't knowingly buy China-junk. For me, at least, that includes Ford and Motorcraft branded stuff from a dealership. (I've had a BAD experience with hub/bearing assemblies replacements I bought from a dealership that were marked "Made in China.")

The price differences between the hubs sourced from Ford and ebay or Amazon is amazing, but few of the lower priced ones with more than 100 reviews have consistently good ratings, except the Dorman product (I beleive it is made in Japan) and it is almost as costly as those distributed by Ford. Dorman's "improved" version of the hub appears to have serious fitment issues.

My Questions:
Anybody know if the "genuine Ford parts" from the dealership are still made in the USA?
Is there some way to consistently identify knockoffs of this part?
Did Ford ever market this part under the Motorcraft name?

If you can help with this, Thanks!

 

Search, locking hubs made in America

 

Not sure anyone makes a auto or vacuum locking hub in the US, I'd imagine it infringes on designs and would be a legal issue. Now a real manual locking hub, warn and mile marker are either made in the US or they are made in a US overseen operation. I know my 01 f350 mile marker 449ss hubs took a BEATING and never failed. They plowed for 12 years in large commercial lots, pulled a flat bed with and excavator or a back hoe around in sketchy off road areas, and I would occasionally off road it in the Adirondacks, I twisted a few front driveshafts, but never had a hub fail. The auto hubs almost lasted all of 1 season of plowing and never saw trailer duty before they failed, had to be manually engaged in and out and then exploded.

 

Plenty of parts from scamazon are bootleg garbage. I'll also say there are both "Motorcraft" and ford parts to be had. I found this when replacing unit bearings on my 99F250. IIRC one is considered a "service" part and the other OEM or some crap like that. I do believe there are other mfg'ers who make hubs for our trucks like mile marker or warn.

 

Hard to beat the Warn or MM manual hubs.

 

Thanks, everyone!
I've looked at MM and Warn. Good stuff, but I want to keep the ESOF functional. Basically, I want to be able to shift in and out of 4x4 while driving due to local conditions and my driving style. I admit I'm lazy and I don't want to get out of the truck everytime the road surface changes. I don't want to run with the hubs locked in because of there nay be a possiblility of encountering snow or ice.. There was a reason I bought the truck equiped this way!

My 01 hub selectors are ORIGINAL, 23 years old and with 296,000 miles on this truck. I consider that evidence that I do not need the stronger manual units. In fact, I can use my hub selectors manually. They still function well that way,.

I was looking for some guideance as I try to sort through hundreds of listings on scores of sites, including "scamazon" and "fleabay" and various on-line Ford distributors as well as others It is really hard to differentiate the good, the bad and the ugly for this part! And I don't want to pay dealership prices for hub selectors and find out they were made in China and were available for half the money somewhere else like the unit bearings and/or rotors I bought from a Ford dealership! I feel I was scammed on them, too!

The test "stand' ("special tool #205-795") should be here today. I'm almost hoping the hub selector passes and I have to tear down the whole hub assembly again just so I don't have to bother soritng out a replacement!

 

On my last F-250 with manual hubs, I would lock the hubs during the winter, or anytime I thought I might need 4x4, then just put it into 4H when I needed it.

 

The ford replacement hubs are made in the USA. (I have them in stock at my dealership) Id say if the Ford hubs lasted 296K miles and 23 Years they are gonna be the best bang for your buck.

 

Thanks for the info! Good to know they are American Made. I've had the same thoughts about how well the original set lasted, but I needed confirmation!

 

I got the tool to test the hub selectors and tested them. Both hold vacuum significantly longer than required. However the selector that was on the right side does not engage/disengage as per the service manual. So, now I get to disassemble it and try to figure out why!

And then I still have a vacuum leak on the other hub so will be taking it apart again to isolate that problem!

And the aftermarket (National) dust tube seal worked itself off the axle stub and is making a horendous screeching noise when engaged! I had this problem before and solved it by using Motorcraft seals. Should have gone with them instead!