On my '96 f150 Northland, the drivers side hub is making a "rub, rub, rub, etc..." noise and I don't think it has anything to do with the brakes cause when I apply them it still sounds the same. I only hear it at very low speeds when I'm driving through the parking lot or on my residential street. It seems to be getting louder. It does both forward and reverse and in four wheel driver as well as 2 wheel drive.

Is there something common in that hub that fails?

The haynes manual doesn't give me any kind of diagram for the '96 hub but does specify that it is different. There is a procedure to take it apart and put it together but I'm not at all educated on the 4x4 hub and don't care to dive into it without any diagrams of how it works or goes together.

Can anyone here guide me or lead me on the right path? Please...

 

sounds like the dust seal

 

Is this a manual hub or an automatic hub? I might also pull it apart and repack the bearings.

 

It is an automatic hub and yes, I'd probably do all that (bearings) if I do tear it apart.

 

Take the truck out in the parking lot with your windows down and you leaning out (if its on the drivers side). Take the truck up to about 30 mph and make long slow sweeping turns, try to make it make that sound... it could be just your dust seal behind the inside main bearing (very easy to replace) or it could be that the inside bearing has failed, and the actual hub (not the locker) is getting loose and rubbing on the spindle. Also, carefully remove the wheel and grab the disc and try to wiggle it back and forth- if you feel it moving, even what you may think is a negligible amount, then you need to go ahead and remove the hub locker, the spindle nuts and pull the rotor and hub assembly off and replace the bearings, races and the dust seal. I'd guess the cost of having a shop do that (at about 50.00 per labor hour) would run almost 200, plus about 30 dollars for bearings and races, and about 8$ for the grease/ dust seal. If the hub has been rounded out from scrubbing the spindle, then you'll be looking at about 200 dollars for a new hub from ford, plus another 1.2 or 1.5 hrs labor for swabbing the hub and pressing the studs in it..

But if you dont go ahead and fix it you'll be out alot more than it would cost to fix it while its not too bad. heres hoping you get it figured out

 

GET RID OF THOSE HUBS!!! Ford's auto hubs are junk and they have been for years. They will leave you stranded some day. Invest in some manual hubs... you will thank me later.

 

Mine died in 1999 while towing a boat down the causeway to the Keys. No place to pull over!

I bought a set of WARN de-luxe hubs for like $89 and they have worked great ever since.

The old hub on the passenger's side came out in little chunks of pot metal. It disintegrated.

It is not hard to remove it. There is a clip ring inside the hub. If you have a dental pick (great for all sorts of car stuff, BTW) you can remove that ring once you get the cap off. The new WARN hubs came with pretty good instructions. The FORD factory service manual is pretty detailed if not obtuse.

"Automatic" hubs have one major drawback - they require 2-3 tire rotations to lock. If you are out in the mud and get stuck in 2WD, you'll have to jack up the truck, rotate the wheels by hand until they lock, and then jack it back down again. Big PITA.

Regardless of whether you do a lot of highway or off-road work, you want to know for SURE whether your hubs are locked or not. With these auto hubs you are never sure...

The symptom on mine was a definite crunchy noise, or pretty loud buzzzzzz while driving.

Good Luck.

 

Yep, same old line. 250,380 miles on my auto hubs, use 4WD every day at work to get on and off jobsites, No problems. Hubs generally start to "click" when going. I'd say that your seals are an issue, if not check your u-joints. I can shift into 4wd at a standstill in the mud and the limited slip front axle will engage the hubs after a 1/2 rotation of the axle, limited slip is a great help in this area. As a backup I have a pair of drive plates in the toolbox. The hubs on the Dana 50 are much more heavy duty than those on a Dana 44 on an F150, so I guess the autos on my '96 Bronco should have failed before now, no, well there is no substitute for maintenance.

 

There is no "maintenance" to do on the auto hubs.

Mine failed at about 20,000 miles (I bought this truck new) and were smashed to little bits.

The WARN hubs have gone over 90,000 miles with no problems.

Like you said, maybe the F-250 version is better. Or maybe just some of them are defective from the factory.

But frankly, I prefer to know whether my hubs are locked or not. Backing up 20 feet to "unlock" the hubs is ridiculous....

Shift on the fly and stuff like that is for chicks in SUVs, IMHO.

 

I pull the hubs twice a year, clean them and soak in Marvel Mystery oil. I don't back up 20' to disengage, more like 5' to 10'. I have always been able to feel when the hubs are locked as the limited slip jumps a bit when turning even in wet red Georgia clay. I sell lumber and building materials and use the 4wd out or neccessity every day and in my case they work. I regularly log 150 to 160 miles per day. If I lived anywhere close to the ocean, and if you were headed to the Keys you must, I'd probably pull them down every quarter. I enjoy the maintenance on my truck, it saves me money, and releives stress working on it. If yours grenaded you had a problem. Manual hubs work for you and thats fine. I've had both and will keep on going with the old girl like she is. I suspect that since my 4wd system gets a constant workout and is maintained it works accordingly. BTW there is "maintenance" on any and all components of a vehicle from a simple washing/waxing to preserve your exterior paint, vaccuming to keep grit from attacking cloth seat fibers, to changing fluids regularly. My last F350 had 530,000 + on it when I sold it. Oh, it had auto hubs that worked as advertised as well.

 

Hey Tex,
I'd still love to find out what hub maintence you do? Do you pull the bearing & stuff out before soaking ? I assume you repack the bearings at least.
Cheers,
Popa Tim

 

Tim,
I pull the whole hub/rotor assembly and flush in parts washer, clean and repack the bearings (check for wear on races, cage, rollers), The auto hub has five bolts that hold it in place, once removed, you have to remove the internal clip to remove the hub. Auto hubs don't like heavy grease, at least that's been my experience and they have to operate more moving parts than, say a Warn Premium. This also an excellent time to rebuild the calipers and turn the rotors. The ceramic pads I went to seem to last forever at this point and stop well. I have rebuilt the double piston calipers twice now since the boots get so abraded by the dirt I seem to stay in, I just go ahead and install the rebuild kit, took about 4 hours the first time and and hour an a half the last time, I'm old and worn out but seem to retain mechanical shortcuts that work. I have a SafetyKleen parts washer with a 42" by 28" "sink" that I clean everything in. I then soak the hubs in marvel Mystery oil and use an oil can to "wet" the splines. Once everything is all sealed up again, works like a champ. The auto hubs on the F250 seem to be very like those on my old F350 and seem to keep on ticking. The Marvel Mystery Oil doesn't seem to affect the grease packing on the bearings and is always present when I crack them every 6 months. Just as a matter of consideration, I have always felt that the combination of the limited slip diff's front and rear take full advantage of the auto hub potential, causing a positive lock on both axles fairly quickly. I think this has an effect on disengagement as well as one axle is not "dead" due to an open diff. I've taken a 12.7 round in the hip during a soiree to Southeast Asia a few years ago and as I keep pushing my over 50 years, I look for things that don't require that I do things I don't need to do. All the best and have a great summer.

 

no one mentioned the inner universals on the front differential , they can cause
all kinds of noises and steering problems. To check them ,raise the front end
turn the steering all the way to one side. With the hubs engaged turn the
tire with your hands ,if there is any drag or tightness look at the universals. It
doesnt take much to cause noise or vibration.

 

Ahhh, young hobbitt, you're correct. This would be an excellent time to check while looking at everything else.

 

Well, I'm startingto wonder. I just went through everyting all the way down to the rolling diaphram seal behind the spindle and it's still making noise, although not as loud as before, but it's still there. Sometimes it's there and noticable and sometimes it is not. I replaced every seal and all the bearings were fine. I'm not sure what to do next. I guess just drive it till the wheels fall off, I don't know. ???