I am having the same problem with my premium Warn hubs, on my '03 Excursion. Did the hub replacement fix your problems, permanently? Did you put the standard hubs back on, or upgrade to the premium hubs? I have a call into Warn now, but they are closed due to the holidays, so i will learn more from their side in a few more days.

 

the same problem as in the snap ring on the back isnt staying in or that they just wont engage type of problem? have you taken them apart to look at them yet? i just had a problem with one of the warn premiums that i put in my wife's excursion....the snap ring on the back was missing and the hub would not engage....robbed one of my oem lockers for the part and now it works great.....

 

I have seen problem at least 3 times this week differant sections on here. Seems to be an issue with the Warns and some sort of other problem. In one of the dug up threads the OP figurered he had a stiff u-joint. I suspect the others could be traced to bad u-joints or bad spindle bearings. It seems the Warns are not built strong engough for any extra stress.

 

I have taken both sides apart, to see if there are any differences, and there are none that i can see, and the driveline everywhere else seems fine, and normal, shifts as it should, etc. I've done my fair share of work on vehicles, so i'm not a complete novice to mechanical repairs (heck, i do all of my own auto maintenance, from brake jobs, to timing belts, and even wheel bearings). I have taken the offending passenger side side apart, and the first time the snap ring came out of the groove, i had to use a pliers to get the snapring to reseat fully. It was as if the groove was damaged or cut too narrow, which kept the ring from seating in the first place. When the passenger side came apart the second time, the snap ring fell into place easily during the repair. But upon reassembly, i also swapped sides, to see if the problem would follow the hubs, or stay on the passenger side of the axle. I also added some high quality John Deere grease into the splines, since i figured part of the problem might have been that the splined axle shaft was sticking in the hub lock, which might have been putting undue stress on the snapring. Just today, i got the Excursion fired up, and took her for a ride to see what would happen....and to my amazement, everything held tight, and i was able to do aggressive figure 8's in a parking lot for 5 minutes! But now, since i changed 2 things at once (regreased the splines, AND swapped sides), i do not know which one did the trick. I am still going to follow up with Warn to get their 2 cents worth...in my opinion, the locking hubs should not be the weak link in the driveline....i've used manual hubs for decades on older trucks, and this is the first time I've ever had any problems.

 

I just had problems with my 250. The hub (Warn) on the passenger side went bad. After I bought a new set and installed them, (I had helper go pick them up), I found out Warn has 2 versions. a standard one and a better one. I would have bought the better one if I knew it. and we hardly use them here in NJ. It should not have gone bad this soon.

 

Warn delivered a new set of hubs, and did not ask for the old set back. I have not installed the new set yet because so far the old ones are holding tight after quite a bit of use during the past snowstorm. It seems the extra grease i put in there did the trick? Could i be soo lucky?

 

Play it safe: Install the new ones and send me the old ones!

Stewart

 

not in my case....all new ball joinst - u joints in front axle and bearing units within the last year.....definitely a warn issue....

 

I took the new ones completely apart, and i can agree with you that they should be able to be made stronger.

Warn relies on a bushing surface between the center splined part and the copper colored carrrier, and i found very little lubrication on this feature....and warn clearly stated that they are prelubed, so whenever you are running with hubs unlocked these two parts are running against each other with only a few drops of oil as lube.....a bearing would beef this up a lot, but add cost. I greased it thoroughly with a good wheel bearing grease.

The snap ring that kept popping out on me seems very lightweight, AND the groove is on the wide side (groove dimensions according to some industry catalogs for these snaprings) so this will allow the ring to peel out more easily IF the system gets bound up and and tension is put on the components ( like during a turn, maybe). Id like to see a snugger fitting groove.

Since i do not plan on putting the Ford hubs back on, all i could do was work with the Warns. Sooooo, i tried to prevent the possibility of a "bind- up" by using ample amounts of moly grease on all splined surfaces, inside and out. The only place i kept the grease thin was on the splines between the shift donut and the housing , and this was so it would not stick in really cold weather. So far so good.