Exercise your hubs - Diesel Forum

gordonford · 01-16-2008, 03:51 PM

Was showing a young lady the finer points of driving a 4X4. Went to show her how to manually lock the hubs on my 04 F-350 4X4 (or$X$). Ooops the center portion would not move. A squirt of WD-40 to free them up followed by moly lube to keep them free. Now on my semi annual service list. (Automatic hubs are exercised every time I put the truck in 4-High to go up our driveway (+20% slope))

F350Lariat · 01-27-2008, 06:15 PM

Wow... you have a 20% + slope on your driveway. You must not have any building codes in your neck of the woods. I have a 7% slope on my driveway and the county inspector forced the builder to pave it for better traction before signing off on the occupancy certificate. Of course, the expense was out of builder's pocket because we had already signed the contract.

Good preventative maeasure for the hubs. I had mine replaced with 23,000 miles under warranty for the same reason.

blofgren · 02-03-2008, 01:02 PM

My truck does not have ESOF, but I'm assuming that the hub operation is similar with the manual and auto/override hubs.

I have also noticed that they are a bear to turn if left too long. I now try to remember to turn them to lock and then back to unlock every time I wash my truck. I haven't had any problems since then.

Brad

Lightningfast01 · 12-10-2008, 09:35 PM

Hmm, 94K and may have turned one once...

Lightningfast01 · 12-29-2008, 11:34 PM

I moved mine the other day after 4 years and 100K miles. They moved just fine.

andrewbalser · 01-19-2009, 05:21 AM

The 2005 and newer trucks have different hubs than the older models. Perhaps, they don't suffer the same fate. I know my 03 hubs were replaced at around 30k for sticking. And I just recently started flipping them back and forth a few times at each fillup just to make sure they get to move. It has helped! They were getting sticky again.

Derkperk · 04-17-2009, 06:32 PM

I turn mine every time I wash it. May be a bit over kill, but I'm down there anyway. And the bubbles are COOL!!!

ZMANN · 04-17-2009, 07:57 PM

Those bubbles freaked me out when I first saw them

wpfd · 04-22-2009, 08:50 AM

Smae fate on my 03'. Got stuck in a ditch with my plow during a snowstorm. Oops. Switched from Auto's to manuals since then... Then i know they are locked.

Gotrox · 04-23-2009, 09:59 PM

i thought about this the other day and turned mine, they turned smooth as they did that last time I turned them when I bought it, almost two years ago. Of course I'm sure dry warm weather 8 months of the year and no winter temps below 40 degrees helps.

Lightningfast01 · 06-05-2009, 11:08 AM

My ESOF left me stuck. I had to get out in the mud and engage them manually... Embarassed.