Stiff hubs

Been having trouble engaging front hubs. Very stiff. Took them apart and thoroughly cleaned them.  Worked great for first 2 times then got stiff again. Any tip or tricks o these? They are in style. I'll attempt to post a picture

With colder weather, grease can congeal in to a stiff coat that makes it hard for the internals to mesh correctly. Perhaps a thinner grease applied sparingly would work during winter months.

When I operated my driveline shop I recommended to my customers during the winter to either garage their rigs or go ahead and engage their hubs while things were warmer after using their truck. Failure to fully engage the hub lock gear set because of thick or excessive grease is the number one cause of damage. In extremely cold weather I just told them to leave the hub locks engaged and kick the cab control out when they were on pavement. The drawback is that you have all of the front axle components and front driveshaft moving, but at least you won't have trouble getting a hub lock to engage in extreme weather.

Many of my customers were cattle ranchers and used their 4x4 rigs to feed in extreme weather under all kinds of conditions and in all kinds of mud and water. If water or mud gets into a hub lock mechanism and it freezes, the hub lock will not engage. If one or both hub locks are not engaging, the chances of stripping out the hub lock gear set are very good. Make sure that the seal around the knob is doing its job in keeping moisture out.

Some designs of hub locks are reasonably good at keeping out mud and water and some are not. The Warn style that you picture is pretty good at keeping out water and mud as long as the gasket between the hub and the hub lock is intact. Make sure that the hub lock isn't taking on water and thin the grease down with a little oil. Consider, if possible, keeping the jeep in a heated space and engaging the hub locks BEFORE you actually NEED them.

On Ol' Red I use drive flanges. That eliminates two more chances for a breakdown when you need four wheel drive. Of course, that doesn't work well if you must drive for any length of time. My driving is usually local and if I need to go some distance Ol' Red is trailered to the trailhead.

Found a video on youtube. An aussie was servicing the same type hubs on a scout. Very informative. Searched warn hub site. They suggest using white lithium grease. Gonna follow his video and try the lithium.

Looks to be a Scout lockout Warn hub. They had the manual and "Automatic " style. What Ben said is so true. You need to get the axle rotated to line up splines or they won't go in unless they are the spring loaded automatic style. With a locked front differential, you will want spring loaded for sure. Jeeps tend to "oil" them anyway due to 90 weight getting into them--------LOL. Oilly

Thanks for all the help. Like I said I'm going to completley disassemble them clean thoroughly and use the white lithium grease warn suggests.will inspect for rough or chewed surfaces. If that doesn't work I'll replace them.

Those are the same hubs I had on my scout.  They are very hard to turn if you use grease or if they have been damaged, before winter each year I would clean the hubs and put a light coat of white lithium grease mixed with a little oil or atf. I had to lock and unlock the hubs frequently because my scout had lockers front and rear (factory) so I used to unlock one front hub when plowing or instead of pushing snow the whole truck would just slide sideways when you had the plow on any kind of angle.  Also because of the way they are designed if you do get a little water or packed snow in the gap they freeze solid, poor design.

Edited by oldmansimek - 16 Dec. 2019 at 7:27pm

Any hydraulic shop should have a good selection of o-rings, bring both parts of the hub and they should be able to find a good replacement.

  Some places can make o-rings. I never had much faith in them because the ends are glued together to make the ring, but they’d probably be alright in this application. BW