Gary Lewis Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 Gary, these hubs are still the "5 bolt" style. The later 3 bolt style auto hubs ( I think these came around 94?) have the different nuts. The manual hubs are a direct bolt in swap if you have the 5 bolt auto hubs. The conversion is pretty easy and takes about 15 minutes to do. I did find a loose spindle nut so I cranked her back down. Thanks for the explanation, Angelo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpin Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 Got one side hub swapped over from the auto hubs. Was going to do the bearings on that side too but for now just need to get it drivable. The drivers hub was staying half engaged and inner bearing went out, and in replacing that the inner spindle nut with the pin on it I could not remove due to the washer in front of its axle tang had spun into the threads meaning I had to break it to get it out. So I'm still waiting on spindle nuts since when I ordered the hubs Bronco Graveyard didn't send me the spindle nuts even though I ordered the kit that included them. Otherwise it's almost back together then it's time to seal some other things and get the lift kit ordered... Shout out to Warn for the absolutely excellent fitment of these hubs as well. Also update on the fuel issue...with the regulator unplugged over a day and a half she fired right up without issue. Definitely thinking it's toast. Angelo, curious as to why you converted to manual hubs? These auto hubs get a bad rap, but I like them. If you don’t fill them full of heavy grease they work good. I have them on my Bronco. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelo Voltura Posted August 2, 2021 Share Posted August 2, 2021 Angelo, curious as to why you converted to manual hubs? These auto hubs get a bad rap, but I like them. If you don’t fill them full of heavy grease they work good. I have them on my Bronco. I've never personally been a fan of them, they've always been unreliable and the last pair a friend had actually exploded and caused a lot of damage for reasons I couldn't explain as to why it failed. This particular instance I had the drivers side half engaged causing grinding. I've always felt the manual ones were far more reliable when in dire times of need. I am also notoriously hard on equipment and if they do happen to fail on me, most parts stores keep a pair in stock. Auto hubs are few and far between and usually special order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpin Posted August 2, 2021 Share Posted August 2, 2021 I've never personally been a fan of them, they've always been unreliable and the last pair a friend had actually exploded and caused a lot of damage for reasons I couldn't explain as to why it failed. This particular instance I had the drivers side half engaged causing grinding. I've always felt the manual ones were far more reliable when in dire times of need. I am also notoriously hard on equipment and if they do happen to fail on me, most parts stores keep a pair in stock. Auto hubs are few and far between and usually special order. Yeah, that’s too bad, haven’t had any problems. I did pick up a spare set, a guy changed to manual hubs and I got them at a good price. And it might have been someone on this forum and of course I can’t remember! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angelo Voltura Posted August 2, 2021 Share Posted August 2, 2021 Yeah, that’s too bad, haven’t had any problems. I did pick up a spare set, a guy changed to manual hubs and I got them at a good price. And it might have been someone on this forum and of course I can’t remember! These are up for grabs if anyone wants them. You just need one of the splined washers that goes in between the hub and outer spindle nut since I shattered it. Dont ask lol. Otherwise I'm going to hang onto them and throw them in a parts bin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcarlisle Posted August 2, 2021 Share Posted August 2, 2021 Angelo, curious as to why you converted to manual hubs? These auto hubs get a bad rap, but I like them. If you don’t fill them full of heavy grease they work good. I have them on my Bronco. I had a set of auto hubs on my 84 Dodge in 1990 and they work fine til they don't. Mine failed at the WORST moment. Exploring a muddy forest road on some property I had posted a for sale sign on earlier in the week. Going down hill. When the road got really bad I thought I'd walk it a bit and decide. It only got worse. So I tried backing out only to find I had no front drive axle. Had to walk out of there. Ended up going to the land owner's with hat in hand so to speak. I was there without permission. He brought his tractor down and pulled me out. And gave me some tomatoes (gotta love the South). But yeah, one hub failed, leaving the whole thing just spinning. open diff. So in went manuals, which didn't let me down again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Lewis Posted August 2, 2021 Author Share Posted August 2, 2021 Angelo, curious as to why you converted to manual hubs? These auto hubs get a bad rap, but I like them. If you don’t fill them full of heavy grease they work good. I have them on my Bronco. I had a set of auto hubs on my 84 Dodge in 1990 and they work fine til they don't. Mine failed at the WORST moment. Exploring a muddy forest road on some property I had posted a for sale sign on earlier in the week. Going down hill. When the road got really bad I thought I'd walk it a bit and decide. It only got worse. So I tried backing out only to find I had no front drive axle. Had to walk out of there. Ended up going to the land owner's with hat in hand so to speak. I was there without permission. He brought his tractor down and pulled me out. And gave me some tomatoes (gotta love the South). But yeah, one hub failed, leaving the whole thing just spinning. open diff. So in went manuals, which didn't let me down again. Even my 2015 had the automatic hubs, now called Integrated Wheel Ends, fail. Apparently it is a very common problem and the dealer knew exactly what the issue was when I described it. It happened when I was trying to use them to drive on some really slick snow/ice combo in Colorado, and the result was that I had to back down the mountainside for fear of getting stuck if I tried to turn around. Then later they tried to come in while we were driving 75 MPH and continued to do so for an hour. So I like my Warn hubs. If I might need them, like on the 265 miles we did on the Greencountry Oklahoma Adventure Trail, I lock them in and know they'll be there when I need them. Otherwise they are locked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nothing Special Posted August 2, 2021 Share Posted August 2, 2021 Even my 2015 had the automatic hubs, now called Integrated Wheel Ends, fail. Apparently it is a very common problem and the dealer knew exactly what the issue was when I described it. It happened when I was trying to use them to drive on some really slick snow/ice combo in Colorado, and the result was that I had to back down the mountainside for fear of getting stuck if I tried to turn around. Then later they tried to come in while we were driving 75 MPH and continued to do so for an hour. So I like my Warn hubs. If I might need them, like on the 265 miles we did on the Greencountry Oklahoma Adventure Trail, I lock them in and know they'll be there when I need them. Otherwise they are locked out. The auto hubs on my '02 SuperDuty also failed, but they failed differently, not unlocking. So 4WD worked, but I couldn't unlock them. I heard that was a common failure mode in those auto hubs. I also really prefer the operation of manual hubs to auto hubs. Like Gary said, I lock my hubs before I think I'll need them. Then I have shift-on-the-fly capability, even with my lever-shift transfer case (I also like its simplicity and reliability). With auto hubs you can only shift-on-the-fly if you know the hubs are locked, or if you have the electronic shift transfer case that has the ability to "bang!" the front output up to speed without stripping gears. I do think the auto hubs and electronic shift transfer case are easier to use, and I'd prefer them over what i have for Lesley to use. But for my truck I like the manual stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grumpin Posted August 3, 2021 Share Posted August 3, 2021 The auto hubs on my '02 SuperDuty also failed, but they failed differently, not unlocking. So 4WD worked, but I couldn't unlock them. I heard that was a common failure mode in those auto hubs. I also really prefer the operation of manual hubs to auto hubs. Like Gary said, I lock my hubs before I think I'll need them. Then I have shift-on-the-fly capability, even with my lever-shift transfer case (I also like its simplicity and reliability). With auto hubs you can only shift-on-the-fly if you know the hubs are locked, or if you have the electronic shift transfer case that has the ability to "bang!" the front output up to speed without stripping gears. I do think the auto hubs and electronic shift transfer case are easier to use, and I'd prefer them over what i have for Lesley to use. But for my truck I like the manual stuff. Interesting! Thanks for the replies. Now I’m looking at Warn premium hubs… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArdWrknTrk Posted August 3, 2021 Share Posted August 3, 2021 Tonight my headlamp switch failed. 😖 It still works but the parking and dash lights only work in halfway between park and lights on. Except the headlamps are off unless the knob is fully out. Hopefully someone has one locally. And this rain stops. Well, I replaced the headlamp switch and pigtail this afternoon.... Still no joy. 😖 I've got power at the fuse but not at the tan/white wire of the plug (back probing) Soooo, I guess I have to tear the whole dash out to unwrap the harness from the fuse panel to the pigtail. So much for work tomorrow. I'm not putting it back together now, just to do it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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