How to limp home..WARN

[LightBnDr]

I have no doubt that a handful of you guys have done this without needing an explanation. I just wanted to share it with the few that may find this board on accident when looking for a fix idea on the trail or are torn between a certain purchase during a build.

I run a 97 F350 single wheel ball joint 60 front on my little rig but I run warn premium locking hubs instead of drive flanges because I run OEM inner 35sp shafts and 35 spline Yukon outers. I personally don't enjoy swapping an inner axle shaft on a trip let alone when you're on a trail furthest away from camp and the way out ain't much harder than the way you came in.

I have run 5 years on my set of hubs and my last trip I finally broke one, drivers side. I backed down off the ledge and out of the way and waved the others in my group on. We had a long trail ahead.

I pull my hub out and apart. Heres what happened.

I broke the center ring, ripped half the splines off the collar and broke the outer aluminum housing of the hub, so 4 pieces.

All in a hurry thinkin how am I gonna get back to camp on 3 wheel drive, ain't happenin.
So heres what I did....
When you pull the hub apart, below the center ring is a return spring that unlocks the hub when you turn the handle. This return spring sits underneath the center ring fully compressed when locked. That causes less than half of the collar teeth to spline into the center ring under load. Causing weakness.

So I pulled the return spring out. Put the broken center ring back together like a puzzle and beat it down onto the collar splines that were still good. Then put the return spring on the outside so it forces the ring to stay locked on the collar.

Then reassemble the hub and reinstall in the axle.

Bam...now you got a drive flange that won't unlock and at least will get you back to camp.....or you wheel on it the rest of the weekend cuz you ain't got a spare with you

 

[LightBnDr]

I had a couple people say right away "you need to upgrade". I honestly want this fuse in my build because I had way more fun bein done in 20 minutes and wheeling the rest of the weekend and warn will warranty me for a lifetime.

Hope this helps anybody out there

 

[RustyC]

I run Warn hubs as well. They will break first but I carry a set of flanges in the toolbox. 20 min fix and the set up gets stronger.
My Jeep does see street time so it works for me.

 

[bgredjeep]

I always intended for my Warn hubs to be a fuse while I've run them for about the last 10 years in my Jeep. Instead they lasted through 2 OE stubs, 1 u-joint (which took inner and outer shafts), and a chromoly stub before I finally blew a hub in Harlan this year. I must have bought the toughest set ever. Like Rusty, I had a pair of drive flanges in my wheeling toolbox, as well as an extra pair of Warn hubs I picked up from the junk yard about 7 years ago.

My hubs are a different style than yours, but I don't think your fix would have worked for me. I broke them good.. lol

 

[09zkrankin]

Re:

Had never thought of doing this. May come in handy someday

 

[LightBnDr]

Dang that's how you explode a hub! Good work. :thumbs up

Yeah, RustyC it may be apples to oranges when it comes to D44 hub design versus 35spl 60.

 

[bgredjeep]

I didn't even pay attention that you posted a d60 hub. It looked similar to my older d44 hubs I had for spares.

Thankfully I broke mine goofing off in the lower rock garden in Harlan so I just drove 10mins back to my cabin and replaced it. I expanded the hub when it broke so removal was a PITA, but otherwise no issue.