I was out camping a few weeks ago & had a brake hanging up. I took everything apart to grease the slides. In the process, I realized my hub was still engaged (driveshaft spun while turning hub) I really didnt want to tear everything apart at my campsite, but I did notice the vacuum hose was very loose at the nipple going into the hub, so I pulled it off to find the nipple very rusted. I screwed out the nipple & looking down in the hole where the nipple was, there was a lot of crud. I cleaned it out the best i could with a screwdriver, put everything back together & after a little playing with the hub, I was able to get in disengaged.

I am at home now & have my front end torn apart. its kinda a well needed maintenance weekend.. I have the hub off & did the maintenance using guzzles page. I have a new nipple & vacuum hose to install, but my question is, can I safely flush the channel from the port where the nipple goes in? I was thinking of spraying WD40 or something down in the hole, but am hesitant to do so for fear of doing damage flushing the dirt somewhere else thats going to cause me problems.. Any ideas if I can do harm doing this ??

 

While you have it apart, check the breather bar for dirt, etc.. The system won't work if this is plugged up.. It is the silver bar on the out side of the manual bar **** to shift from auto to manual..

 

Do not spray anything in there. Your best bet is to pull the hub apart. If that hose connection on that nipple has been compromised for some time then you could have corrosion in there. If that happens you will eventually lose the internal seal and you will have issues with your ESOF.

 

Thanks Guys.. I already have the hub out & did the maintenance that is in guzzles maintenance page. I was afraid to risk spraying anything inside, so I tried a thin piece of wire & found out it pushed straight thru ( pushing some crud out with it) & came out inside the spindle. I also may have found another culprit causing me issues. When I bought the truck, I found out the ball joints were bad so the stealership replaced them for me.. The grooved thrust washer that goes against the rear seal was in backwards.. The grooves were facing "out" & were FULL of grease.. I'm so glad you can count on the certified ford mechanics to do things right !!!