broken hubs after first use

[chrwilkins30]

Asking for a friend. (86 b2,stock running gear & suspension,manual t-case,auto trans)

Passenger side seemed to melt the little red insert a while back. He just recently got new mile markers from summit while on sale during Christmas. He was on his way to work and i guess went down a back road and went into 4wd. apparently trying to get threw a few feet of snow. Then i get a call asking me to put the only good stock one back on that side. So i drove it to my house and I did not believe what he said until i looked. Hubs is completely gone. It broke all the way, that the splines from the axle shaft was exposed. all that was there was the flat piece that sits up against the rotor. I asked how fast he was going and he said not over 20 also was in 4high.

Do you think this just something with the hubs or is there a serious problem.?? Two bad hubs on the same side does doesn't sound good to me.
Any advice would help.


what i saw.

Will post actual pics tomorrow.

 

[yyc_tbird_sc]

If the Mile Marker hubs are new....tell your friend to take them back. He can probably get a new set as this should be covered under the warranty. Even better if he can get his money back and get a set of Warn hubs instead.

The Mile Markers use a bushing in the hub, which when set to free is what supports the axle shaft and allows the hub to spin around it freely. This is a poor design, but it's cheaper to make than a bearing setup. If the bushing isn't setup right, then it'll be tighter than it should be and cause excess heat. The amount of heat needed to melt that plastic knob would be quite a bit as the body of the hub is aluminum and it would actually act as a heat sink absorbing the heat away from the bushing, this would be especially true if the weather is cold out.

The Warn hubs use a bearing in them to support the axle shaft and allow it to spin freely. This is a far better design. This is also the same setup that the factory used in the manual hubs they offered.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

Did the second one blow right after the first one? Like the first one blew and then the second one blew the next time he used 4x4? If so I wouls say somethings messed up in the front axle. If not I would agree with yyc tbird and see if you can't get some warn hubs.

 

[chrwilkins30]

the stock on melted while in 2wd during the summer. But i would blame that to the PO that looked like they used wd40 to grease the splines up.

He is calling Monday to see if he can get his money back. I think it was just those hubs that he got because i though my mile marker were f'ed up and i put them on his truck and they work perfect. Now i thinks it just a u joint on the passenger side that is moving around.

Thanks for the input.

 

[4x4junkie]

If the Mile Marker hubs are new....tell your friend to take them back. He can probably get a new set as this should be covered under the warranty. Even better if he can get his money back and get a set of Warn hubs instead.

The Mile Markers use a bushing in the hub, which when set to free is what supports the axle shaft and allows the hub to spin around it freely. This is a poor design, but it's cheaper to make than a bearing setup. If the bushing isn't setup right, then it'll be tighter than it should be and cause excess heat. The amount of heat needed to melt that plastic knob would be quite a bit as the body of the hub is aluminum and it would actually act as a heat sink absorbing the heat away from the bushing, this would be especially true if the weather is cold out.

The Warn hubs use a bearing in them to support the axle shaft and allow it to spin freely. This is a far better design. This is also the same setup that the factory used in the manual hubs they offered.

Warn hubs have bushings now too.
The difference is in the quality of the materials used, Mile Marker apparently uses cheaper materials than Warn, and are known to break (often exposing the axle & bearings) pretty regularly.

I still would have to agree with the comment above there could be something wrong with the axle if it's always on the same side you're having a problem. Could be coincidence too, but certainly worth checking into (especially since you mention the u-joint moves around... could be that the spindle needle bearing is toast).