Mechanic says he's never seen anything like this

[tinman13kup]

Kevin is saying that if the hubs are NOT locked in and you put the t-case to 4-lo, power is sent to the front axle but stops there. Without the hubs locked to connect the wheels to the axles you get a 2w-lo.
It sounds like you would have the exact same operation with the warns that you have now. You twist to lock the hubs, and when you don't want them anymore, you disengage them.

The biggest downside to leaving them locked is the binding when going around corners and reduced fuel mileage. If you consider not having to mess around with the hubs and having them work a downside, then you can count that too

[Coolhand]

FWIW, I replaced the ESOF hubs with Warn manual hubs on my 2001. Fine with me to switch them in when I need them. As KLHansen said, leave em locked if you think you might need 4WD. Dodge trucks are always locked, as they do not have hub disconnects. Sure a bit more wear and slight fuel economy hit, but the manuals always work, whereas the ESOF system does have a number of failure points that tend to go bad at the worse time.....

I got mine from Napa for like 100 bucks... not the premium, but good enough.


Coolhand

[Skydiver]

I found a place in town that has the Warn Premiums in stock for $282, so I'll be putting them on later today. Hopefully that will stop the vibration. Even if it doesn't, at least I'll know that I'll have a good set of locking hubs that I can depend on. I'll post here on whether or not that took care of the vibration problem. Thanks for the input.

[losfinch]

I too, for what its worth, keep my hubs locked almost all year long as I am continually going from pavement to off road conditions multiple times a day. To get out and lock and unlock the hubs each and every time I needed 4x4 would be crazy. Only when I know I'm going to be out on the highway for several hours or going on a long paved highway trip do I unlock the hubs. Been doing this for over 6 years with the factory hubs and so far so good. Did the same thing in my old Toyota Landcruiser for about 5 years and never had a problem.

[Skydiver]

Well, I now have nice new shiny Warns on my truck but still have the vibration issue. Crawled underneath the truck today and found that at the carrier bearing I could push the drive shaft up about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Don't know if that's possibly the problem, but at this point I'm just going to have to take the truck in to the mechanic and bite the bullet.

[klhansen]

I'm pretty sure that my driveshaft carrier bearing moves about that much inside the rubber mount, and I don't have vibrations like you're describing.

Not sure what could be causing it. I do know that vibrations and noise can telegraph all over to sound like it's coming from somewhere other than the actual source.

Hope you figure it out.

[Evel486]

For what it's worth, many years ago I was driving a Chev 5 ton and had similar symptoms. Decelerating the truck would shake violently, step on the throttle and it would smooth out. Turned out to be the right side motor mount was toast. Maybe worth a check.

[westvandude]

I just put new esof hubs on mine. $389 delivered from Tasca parts on ebay.

Didn't solve my bearing noise and they still don't work in AUTO mode, but looking at my vacuum hoses from the axle in the wheel well I'm gonna replace those and then do more diagnostics from there.

Here's a useful video:

How To: Find and Diagnose ESOF Hub Vacuum Leaks - YouTube

How To: Find and Diagnose ESOF Hub Vacuum Leaks - YouTube

Personally, I think there's nothing wrong with the esof system. But like anything on a 10+yr old vehicle rubber hoses need replacement, etc.

I had manual hubs on my Toyota pickup and to be honest, I hated getting out in the mud/snow to twist the hub locks.... your wife/GF won't appreciate it either. So why give up the convenience for a few bucks less? You'll soon eat up the fuel in the mpg difference of driving around locked all the time. Then the manual hubs will show no savings in the long run.

[delreyr]

Also check your trac bar bushings. Brother's '00 had similiar problems and finally found wheel unit bearing and bad trac bar bushings. Good luck!

[westvandude]

So.... $2.78 for 6' of vacuum hose and now my brand new replacement esof hubs work like new. :-)

If you don't have binding auto hubs (dial really hard to turn) chances are first culprit is the vacuum lines in the wheel well running from the upper fender liner down to the axle spigots. Less than 2' of hose either side takes 5mins or less to replace both sides. Just turn the wheel full left then right to do each side easy as pie.

Plastic spigot on top side and metal spigot on axle. Just pull either end off, remove old hose. Route new hose thru hose retainers, plug in top and bottom.

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I have two wheel hub bearings for the front axle so gonna swap them in over the next couple weeks. I might get started this weekend.
If that doesn't cure it then it's either trans, driveshaft or rear axle.

[cghoerichs]

Since nobody has mentioned the slip join on the drive shaft I'll throw that into the conversation since that is something that seems to go unchecked but is the least expensive and easiest to check for vibration issues. Don't forget to chock the wheels!

[sailpadre]

my automatic transmission torque converter was doing the same thing-vibrate at slow speeds and go away under normal conditions. It wasn't unlocking.