shift-on-the-fly 4x4 operational help

*snip* *Asking for clarification* Jeff do you have manual locking hubs or auto locking hubs? If you have to get out of your truck and manually lock the hubs then that's what you always have to do to engage the front wheels. "Shift on the fly" means you can shift into 4WD at speed, but it doesn't mean your front wheels are pulling unless you have automatic locking hubs. Doesn't matter how far you travel, a manual locking hub (one that can be locked by hand) always has to be manually locked to engage the front wheels.

Hope that helps.

Ron

I have auto locking hubs and have never moved them out of the "auto" position. I have always just flipped the switch on my dash to engage 4x4 at speed during winter driving. The truck I owned before this had manual hubs and a shift lever on the floor to control the transfer case, I know the difference between a manual

4x4 system and an automatic one.

To get unstuck I manually moved the hubs to the "lock" position.

Jeff

The Superduty's auto lock hubs have a safety feature that allows the operator to manually lock the front hubs just in case of failure. Jeff just used this safety feature.

The auto lockers will lock when you put it in 4x4, but will unlock if you go back and forth. If you have some heavy duty rocking or yanking, you should manually lock them. (I was told this by a Ford Truck service place.) Apparently, you can blow out the hubs if you do a lot of rocking where the wheels don't turn a lot and just move little by little

Good job by the way of not taking out your fence

A friend has a '01 F250 superduty. On it if you hit the 4x4 button and roll 2 or 3 feet you can hear an audible click from the front hubs when they lock.

My 91 F150 with auto locking hubs also seem to only lock the front hubs after the wheels roll 3 or 4 feet and you hear audible click from the front hubs.

I'm not sure how they are supposed to work. But it appears that the front wheels have to roll 2 to 4 feet before the front hubs will lock automatically.

I guess shift-on-the-fly means shift while moving, instead of shift-at-anytime.

Most of the Super Dutys use a combined automatic and manual hub system. In theory, moving the knob on the dash to 4wd hi/low will shift the t-case and engage the front hubs via vacuum. Since it is vacuum power, I imagine it does require some movement forward or backwards to allow the operation to take place. The manual aspect of the hub means you can override the vacuum system and ensure they are locked.

This system on these trucks is prone to failure. I understand it is a seal problem. Seems to occur on trucks that aren't used in 4x4 very often. On my own trucks, the auto system has mostly failed now. Moving the dash switch and not manually engaging the hubs will leave me in 2wd for sure. After having the hubs manually locked and then unlocking them, I seem to have a 50/50 chance of both of them actually unlocking. I've had it take weeks of moving the dash knob back and forth before they system fully unlocks a hub. You can tell a hub is hung because when you make a tight turn, you can feel it though the steering wheel. (Yeah, you would think I'd get this fixed one of these days since it has been going on for at least a couple of years!!)

Matt

99 V-10 Super Duty, Super Cab 4x4

This is exactly why I chose manual hubs and the big-ass transfer case lever in the cab when I ordered my '02 F350. Once I put it into 4WD, I *KNOW* it's in 4WD.

I have the Warn Manual Hubs as well. However I still have the vacuum transfer case engager. I had bad seals and was in 4WD full time. The Warn hubs put a stop to that.

I did that to my 4Runner with the ADD (Auto Diff Disconnect) system. The mone the hubs cost me has been repaid many many times by not requiring me to replace CV boots twice a year.