So I was driving the other day, nothing fancy, just going about 65 down the belt line here in grand rapids and my truck made a loud 'BOOM' and I pulled over to see what was wrong. Nothing out of the ordinary other than smoke coming out the axle tubes. I figure 'well that appeared to be factory smoke... this is gonna be expensive... back to work I suppose'

After that my truck was making this god aweful squeal. I checked the hubs and both were set in the 'free' position so I figured I'd look at her when i got home from work. On my way home I noticed a steady stream of white/ black smoke on the passenger side of the truck and was like 'now aint this crappy'

I got home to find the painted portion of my hub (after i pulled the plastic trim piece away) with the the paint separating, glowing orange (the mellow orange not the just had a torch on it orange) and made a very astute observation that the plastic selector switch was 75% gone. I doused it with water and got a big ball of steam... upon further inspection I found the u joint in my axle had been rubbing on the bases of both ball joints and is sagging at about a 15 degree bend. The hub seal is no longer existant, and the axle is still connected to the gears in the diff. I then pulled the trashed hub apart and here's what I found.









Note the c-clip and thrust washers are almost non-existant, and the axle spline side of the warn hub is welded to the axle. The axle is still sagging hardcore and the tip of the axle you now see is touching the outer hub side. I have no idea whats wrong, but by the looks of it it appears a carrier bearing towards the end of the axle tube decided to reture early. This happened on my trucks 150K birthday.. .I hope we can get this figured out and this is not an omen

 

Slagged a set of warn hubs, Send those pictures to Warn. If nothing else you might get a free hub out of the ordeal. The Premium have a limited lifetime warranty and the standard has either a 3 or 5 year going from memory.

I believe I've read some threads about the bearing assy failing and causing big issues like this. Even if it's just a hub problem, I would go ahead and replace the bearing assy too. You dumped a lot of heat on the bearing package and it would be nice to have a clean setup there so you don't have to tear it down later.

Just a word of warning, I've heard from fire depts, that water and magnesium don't mix well. To the effect of when it vaporizes the water, it breaks the hydrogen free and ignites the oxygen/hydrogen air. I haven't tried it, and I don't know how much mag is in the hub assy, but it's one of those things that's better safe than sorry. (a co2 powered fire extinguisher can cool things off pretty quickly.)

 

Thanks for the warning on the magnesium! But I do know that the the wheel bearing set of axle bearings are fried. But the way the axle is sagging inside the axle tube, is there supposed to be an bearing in there? I havent had the ***** to pull my front diff cover for fear of what i might find... but the dana 60 is foreign to me so i dont know

 

Wow! I would never have thought that could happen... I hope that Warn comes thru with a new set of locking hubs because that looks like its going to be an expensive repair. Keep us updated on your progress!

 

Mag wheels went out with hula hoops. Those are aluminum.

 

I bet the wheel hub bearing locked up. I can't imagine a locking hub doing all that damage. I would head for the wrecking yard. You won't want to hear the total for all those parts from Ford. Good luck!. If the axle is sagging that much the wheel hub is probably shot, which is what I think caused the heat and the chain reaction.

 

Mag wheels went out, but magnesium is still in use in some places to save weight. It doesn't hurt to err on the side of safety and not put water on smoking hot vehicle parts.

http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/TA/101.pdf
I suspect, but don't know if Warn is using Mg for cast portions of the hubs, same for OE hubs.

 

American Racing made real mag wheels back in the days of Mickey Thompson, Don Garlits, and Tommy Ivo for the drag racers but they have been all aluminum since then but they never dropped the "Mag" name. Some things are still made of magnesium though, like my snowshoes. It is mostly found in high tech expensive race parts for autos though. I doubt very much if there is Mg in the warn hubs. In fact; I doubt if Ford make 1 part from Mg.

 

Good info! not to stray from the topic but I know GM makes several structural components for the W bodies out of magnesium. I imagine ford hid it somewhere in there... but who cares. That aint important but I will call up warn!

 

Magnesium will burn fiercely once ignited, but large sections are hard to get started because Mg is so efficient at conducting heat. You can hold an acetelyne torch flame on a large Mg casting for a suprisingly long time without catching it on fire because the heat moves away so quickly. If it isn't burning, water helps cool the metal, and could make the difference between it catching fire and not. Putting water on the metal away from the heat source is nearly as effective as putting water directly on the hottest area, as long as it is not burning.

Mg shavings will ignite easily, and are great fire starter. If you put water on burning Mg it does chemically react and burn incredibly hot. Burning Mg is used for aerial flares to light up huge areas like daylight.

 

Maybe you should take it apart first. They will probably say the snap ring wasn't on properly or the seized wheel hubs caused it. On second thought, take some close up pictures of the snap ring area and wait to see if they will come out to look at it like it is (But I doubt it).

 

I'd say the bearings went and the hub got chewed up in the process. The hubs are there to engage/disengage 4wd not as a load bearing member.

Say even IF all the shavings on the end of the hub were magnesium it would not be much of a fire.(Hub heat would have ignited them anyway) Besides I'd say your hard pressed to find any fully magnesium parts on a SD. I weld and machine magnesium from time to time and we always had a class D fire extinqusher on hand. A ton of magnesium chips laying in the chip pan with coolant all over the place. A chunk or a small amount of shavings isn't much concern.

 

X2 on that.

My thoughts exactly.

 

Looks like the inner spindle bearing (needle bearing) where the axle stub rides is shot, allowed the axle to sag, and caused all the friction inside the locking hub.

You could try to get Warn to warranty it, but I bet they'll deny it because that is not a hub failure, but a needle-bearing failure which is not Warn-supplied

 

There is no bearing at the end of the axle tube ..... I think the bearing is where the axle tube meets the differential.

The large seal that fits into the knuckle? That might have been your black smoke.

Your brg/hub assy must be destroyed? Ever repack/replace the needle bearing in it?

Good luck.