Hi, I have a 1993 ford explorer. One of the manual locking hubs wont shift out of free position but after putting it on the hoist and turning it it spun the drive shaft indincating it was in lock position. When driving it I get a horrible grinding noise that increases with speeds. I am forced to leave it in 4x4 (electronic transfer case) or I get a violent poping/banging in the front end, sounds like a shaft is going to come through my floor boards. I was wondering what I need to replace (other than the vehicle at 200K, even though damn near everything including the 4x4 has been rebuilt/replaced). My biggest fear is that it is the diff in the front. The 4x4 doesnt work because the frozen hub I believe slips inside to some extent. HELP!
Hubs or worse
Feb 09, 2006
2 Replies
What you describe is indicative of a siezed or faulty auto-locking hub... the grinding or popping is comming from the "good" side (it was the good side until we let the popping happen for too long) since these hubs lock when the axle shaft turns faster than the wheel.
The most reliable (though a little inconvenient) fix is to replace the hubs with Warn manual hubs.
Thats actually whats on there right now, the one side is frozen. I locked the other side in order to keep them spinning similar speeds atleast.
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