anyone done this with the vacuum hubs?

[schaffer]

I realize the best thing to do is to swap out to the manual hubs,they are stronger and hold up better,plus you know they are locked.

Butttt...I don't have the money for the manual hubs right now...so I figure this would be the next best thing to make sure they are locked.


Here's the link.

http://www.ford-trucks.com/article/...r_19982000_Ford_Ranger_Pulse_Vacuum_Hubs.html

 

[BlueThunder]

Did this a while back. I thought it was pretty clever. At the time, it was the only way to get my hubs working. I sometimes had issues getting the hubs to lock and unlock based on pushing in the center of the hub. It just didn't seem to be 100% reliable. At times I would have one axle locked in and the other wasn't. For me, it eventually got annoying so I broke down and bought the AVM hubs lockers. You may have better performance with this than I did and you can't beat a free fix. It was a simple mod to do and it did get results. It was better than what I had. Like I said, eventually switching to AVMs took the guess work out of everything. Good luck!!

 

[schaffer]

I did the mod today....worked great.


Will they still unlock when I switch it from 4wd to 2wd...or do I manually have to unlock em?

 

[feellnfroggy]

If you did the mod where you cut the center out of the hub to push the little white button you have to manually unlock it. There is also a writeup in te tech library for vacuum hubs.

 

[schaffer]

The write up I followed and the one In tech library are slightly different....I left the little metal peice in between the 2 white half cylinders.


Any downside to doing this...will I lose mpg?

 

[feellnfroggy]

If you leave it locked in you will lose a mpg or two.

 

[ozziemo27]

I have been running said mod for about a year or so now. It works just fine but you have to turn the cv axle back and forth a little for them to lock in after you press the button, which is no big deal. Other than that, they've been perfectly reliable, even wheeling hard. Now CV axles i've been through 2 or 3 of those.... To respond to the last comment, you should not lose any noticeable mileage having them locked in.

 

[feellnfroggy]

To respond to the last comment, you should not lose any noticeable mileage having them locked in.

Is this based on experience? Cuz I have the welded hubs like i mentioned and its alot of extra drag on my driveline having it locked in 100% of the time. I have lost about 2mpg with my 31's on going frm unlocked hubs to driving locked all the time.

 

[ozziemo27]

Is this based on experience? Cuz I have the welded hubs like i mentioned and its alot of extra drag on my driveline having it locked in 100% of the time. I have lost about 2mpg with my 31's on going frm unlocked hubs to driving locked all the time.

Yes, and Ford did the research and changed to live axles for a reason. All that is spinning extra is the front axle and driveshaft.

 

[dme100]

Hubs

I did that mod on my 98 ranger. It works fine, but now I find that when going into reverse when plowing, it sometimes comes out of 4wd. I need to put it in neutral, then switch back to 4wl. I have a set of Manual locking hubs in the garage, in the spring when it gets warm I will rebuild the transfer case motor and put the manual hubs oN.