Locking Hubs on 2003 F350 4WD

[countrybumpkin]

A few more pics for you.

 

[IHDiesel73L]

I have the same year F-350 with manual hubs and I've had it with taking them apart, cleaning them, etc... Before the winter I need to replace the front hubs (as in everything behind the wheels), ball joints, and u-joints. The locking hubs are going in the trash and a new set of Warn hubs is going on. The plastic front hubs are the weakest link in an otherwise extremely well built truck-just get rid of them and be done with it :thumbsup:

 

[scotty088]

I had a 96 F-250 with the auto lock hubs.Unfortunatly the hubs let you down in the worst spots.My grandaughter and I were up in knee high snow only to find I had no four wheel drive due to a blown up Ford auto-hub.What a wild ride out of that situation!!I replaced the stock hubs with a set of Warn manual locking hubs.These are the only way to go,Bullit-proof.I'm from the NW Oregon and have used Warn prouducts for many years.They are a local company that manufactures quality tested products.My opinion You can't go wrong with Warn hubs.............. Scotty:thumbsup:

 

[Duffster]

I had a 96 F-250 with the auto lock hubs.Unfortunatly the hubs let you down in the worst spots.My grandaughter and I were up in knee high snow only to find I had no four wheel drive due to a blown up Ford auto-hub.What a wild ride out of that situation!!I replaced the stock hubs with a set of Warn manual locking hubs.These are the only way to go,Bullit-proof.I'm from the NW Oregon and have used Warn prouducts for many years.They are a local company that manufactures quality tested products.My opinion You can't go wrong with Warn hubs.............. Scotty:thumbsup:

Couldn't you lock the hubs manually? I am not familiar with the OBS.

On my '02 I would just lock them manually if I thought the auto was not functioning.

With the manual hubs one should engage/disengage them periodically, especially if not used often. This could be done at oil changes for example.

 

[countrybumpkin]

Now way to lock them manually on those models

 

[jayste]

Thanks to all who've commented. It looks like I was getting to make a somewhat easy job, hard! :thumbsup:

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I think your truck also has unit bearings instead of tapered roller bearings. Check those out good too, because they are not a "side of the road" fix if one goes out. The right side tends to get more of the bad stuff anyway. You probably should just take it apart and clean it and put it all back together again, that way you know what you got. I bought a new one in '02, and in the first year, unit bearing went out, and it had never been off the pavement. I put it on myself and that little dude was 526 bucks. I later sold that truck, but I am still driving my old '77 high boy all the time.

 

[Highbeam]

I have a 2000 with the auto hubs that have a setting for "lock" or "auto". I've pulled the hubs out before and they are not serviceable to fix the tight dial just as the link to guzzle's procedure tells you. The Ford hubs are crap. If you want to fix this problem then pay the small money and replace with Warn Premiums. It's cheap really and the hub is better. You can't fix the problem you are having with maintenance, it's a flawed system. 150$ for nice, strong, new hubs is small money compared to the effort you'll expend on an attempted temporary fix.

The unit hubs are another problem but the good news is that they are really easy to replace, about twice as hard as changing brakes. Also, the price has come way way down. Now they are just over 100$ from Autozone with the new ABS sensors and everything.

The next thing that'll bite you on the front end is the caliper slide pins being stuck. I had to use an oxy/acetylene torch to get them apart when I bought my 2000 F350.

Oh and then there's the ball joints.

 

[clemsonfor]

I had one go out on my 1980 k10. It was an easy job just keep track of the order and read the instructions. My truck had warn OE hubs but the replacement all these years later was an updated design which looked a little different and went in a little different, this added some confusion but only a few more mins to the job. All the new parts were not used since the hubs fit most full size 1/2 ton axles of that era. It fit the chevy 10 bolt front which i have and the dana 44 , well the corprate (GM) 10 bolt is a copy of the dana 44 anyway. I beleive it also fit some of the others as well. Then there were less parts for 4x4 trucks. I got this hub off Ebay, i though i was buying a set and did not read the discription well enough to see "1" hub. I got it at a steal at around $25 shipped to the house. So i have one old faded original hub and one new "Plasticized" chrome shiny one. Hey it works and got me fixed cheap, only one was broken any way. I think a set for the old 1/2 tons is around $70 at advance auto.

But now a days there still is some standardization to them i think. Should be a similar process to mine but maybe a step or 3 more.