Those of us with manual hub conversions...

[steved]

Check your lockouts... the locking portion.



I had a disappointment with the Warn premiums on my DT kit. I had one start throwing grease for no reason (from the hub-to-lockout seam). I decided to try tightening it during this trip, but its was still loose. So I decided tonight to pull it, see what the deal was. What I found was RUST. Lots of it...



Now keep in mind I have not had the hubs off since installed two years ago. But the hub spring, hub engagement gear, and the drive dog were all rusted, both sides. And I had even oiled these when I installed... the question is, how the water got inside.



They are now heavily greased. I know, not the best idea, but I needed something. I'm going to engage them tomorrow and drive around some... make sure things still work. I have a new set of lockout dials to install...



Just an FYI for you Warn hub owners...

 

[RJWEST]

thanks... .

 

[WStephens]

My 78 Land Cruiser had a set of Warn external mount hubs installed by the dealer and they tore the gasket on one of them and it was sticking out so water got into that hub and caused the spings to rust and it was hard to turn. I replaced them with another set and installed them better than the dealer did and did not have a problem with them after that.

 

[wcjp]

Not a flame.



While I've never owned anything with manual hubs, I thought manual hubs one drawback was constant maintenance. This was why the OEM's went to unit bearings. Is this correct?

 

[steved]

Not a flame.



While I've never owned anything with manual hubs, I thought manual hubs one drawback was constant maintenance. This was why the OEM's went to unit bearings. Is this correct?

Actually there are two reasons...



The first was to intro shift on the fly to cater to the generation that likes "luxury" and to dumb it down for the new generation of drivers that can't check their own oil.



The second is to make it simpler in production... it takes a minute to pop a pre-assembled unit bearing on an axle assembly (with four bolts and an axle nut), but takes probably better than five minutes a side with manual hubs (loose bearings, nuts, spindle, clips, spings, and screws, not to mention a live person to complete the job). It was a simplification of the production line and has less moving parts.



Bearings are meant to be maintained, the thought of a "lubed for life" wheel bearing makes me laugh!

 

[WalterRyan]

"lubed for life" wheel bearing makes me laugh!

Why? All bearings are lubed for life. Always have been, some just have a shorter life. Sorry I couldn't resist.



Unit bearings are one of the stupidest things they ever did. Right behind putting a ball joint on the end of a track bar. I thought it was stupid when they tried it in 1974 but have since changed my opinion. Its downright moronic! besides the above reasons everyone on the supply side likes it because instead of selling a $70. 00 set of bearings they get to sell a $300 to $400 assembly. I don't think that is wy they went to them but it certainly is not motivating thim to go back to standard bearings.



Walt

 

[Tinman]

Are the 2nd Gen and 3rd Gen. unit bearings the same? I was wondering if I did this coversion on the 06 I could use the bearing for the 01 when they wear out.

 

[brods]

Wow. I am sorry to hear you’ve had a problem with the Dynatrac kit that sounds similar to one of the many problems I had with the EMS kit. I’ll probably just be posting you things you already know in the following paragraphs. And like with everything else now a days, it seems they don’t make lockouts like they used to.



Water can get in 8 places on the hubs (9 if you count the wheel bearing seal, but thats a bit unlikely).



The o-ring seal on the lockout dial. Not much here, it’s a simple seal, correctly applied, which should work well.



The six allen head screws. The tiny o-rings supplied with the screws are clearly a misapplication of an o-ring!! They cut easily, they extrude out from under the screw head, they do not allow the head to seat against anything solid, etc, etc. A true sealing washer or some other properly designed seal should have been used here. I toss the o-rings and use a dab of rtv under each head to seal the screws.



The lockout body to hub o-ring seal. To start, the hub to lockout clearance has to be almost perfect for the o-ring to have the correct squeeze to keep water out. The lockout essentially floats on the o-ring, meaning the lockout does not tighten down against the hub body. Instead it tightens down against the internal gear which leaves a gap between the lockout body and the hub body which allows the lockout to move in and out slightly. The o-ring is supposed to fill the gap between the hub and the lockout and hold everything tight. There is little we can do to fix a problem here, other than getting a thicker o-ring to fill up the gap if the clearance is excessive. Potentially adding to the problem, the internal spiral retaining ring that holds the gear in the hub body has a tendency to flair outward, increasing the clearance between the hub and lockout. Also, since the lockout floats, it is free to move around somewhat which will likely cause wear to the o-ring over time. Anyhow, the greater the clearance between the hub and lockout the looser the lockout will be, allowing more movement and less squeeze on the o-ring, which will increase the chance for leakage around the o-ring.



One band-aid you might consider trying is to double up the spiral retaining rings as Warn had suggested to me. That was the only answer they had for loose lockouts. Call their tech line and I’m sure they’d be happy to send you some extra rings. In my case the clearance was so great the o-ring had no squeeze what so ever (the gap was actually larger than the o-ring), so I opted to install thicker o-rings. Remember some of my original rants on the issue? :-laf https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/1818191-post11.html





Hope the helps you find the cause of the water infiltration.

 

[steved]

Brods:



My kit came with two snap rings, but there was not room in the groove to add the second ring.



I think I may need to play with the passenger lockout some more... it seems too loose yet. The driver's side is fine.