Latest hub failure victim?

[yldlifeboy]

Hi guys,

First posting on here....recently purchased a '99 5spd with 123xxx miles on it...used the 4wd the other day and it worked fine, but the problem was when i went to take it out of 4wd...i THOUGHT it was out until i started driving down the road and noticed a whining noise coming from the right front. I pulled it back in the shop and jacked it up to see what was going on and found that the hub still seemed to be engaged on that side??? With both front wheels in the air, the driver's side wheel would spin freely(axle/cv's wouldn't spin) but on the passenger side, the axle would spin with the wheel. Long story short, it seems to do this every time i engaged the 4wd and i've tried everything....i go in reverse forever, then forward and reverse again and it doesn't seem to work because i check it now, and it seems to still stay in when i have it jacked up...the only way i've gotten it to disengage is to have it on the jack stands and engage/disengage the 4wd and spin the tires and then "magically" at some point it decides to spin freely...looking for any advice on this since i'd prefer not to have to routinely do this after using 4wd every time....i was looking at the avm manual hub write ups on here and thinking of going with something like that if it would solve the problem....any help would be greatly appreciated...thanks guys

 

[gw33gp]

It is usually something in the vacuum system, that engages/disengages the hub, that goes bad. Installing the AVM manual hub seems to be the best way to resolve this problem.

I considered switching to the 98/99 hub system so I could install manual locking hubs. The cost deterred me though.

 

[yldlifeboy]

thanks for the info...so with that setup, do you install the hubs and then still just use the 4wd selector like you normally would to still make the transfer case work? sorry if it sounds like a dumb question, but this is the first electronic/vacuum setup i've owned, everything else has had locking hubs and an actual shift lever for the transfer case...still the best setup IMO, wish they would go back to it...thanks

 

[kryptonitecb]

You can get a manual t-case too and solve all your problems.

Sent from the road while ignoring traffic

 

[gw33gp]

Yes, when you install the AVM manual locking hubs and you will still engage the transfer case as you did before. The only difference is you have to get out and manually engage and disengage the hubs.

When you install the locking hubs you will need to block off the vacuum source to the vacuum hubs along with the installation. The installation instruction should give all the information on how to install them.

 

[triumphrider-1]

Did you take the hub apart and clean it? It could be sticking just enough to not let it collaspe the puck.

Before you shell out the cash for AVMs I would just mod the OE hubs to be manual. It takes a couple minutes and has given me zero issues for five years now.

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

Doing it this way also allows you to retain all of the vacuum stuff if you should decide you want the full autoatic 4x4 back.

Hope this helped.

 

[Original_Ranger84]

I agree with triumprider. Thats what I did for a while until I blew the hub completely and i swapped over to AVM's and a manual Tcase. I love it. I feel like i have a reliable 4x4 again.

 

[kiragyu]

i agree with both the switching over to avm hubs and manual tcase or doing a mod to the pvh assembly or there is a 3rd option which i have done recently. i switched over my 98 pvh assembly to an explorer hub and cv assembly so now it spins like 00-11 ranger not so cheap but i have stronger cv axles and a reliable 4wheel drive system back. just another option which ever you decide to do. if you have any question about my swap pm me