Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I was up the beach with a few mates one who had a 89-93 SWB vitara 3 door hardtop manual. Seemed to have no drive to front wheels.

Help me out here please.

When the t/case is engaged and hubs unlocked the prop shaft moves as do the CV's

When the t/case is not engaged but Hubs are the prop shaft and CV's turn as well so where could it be loosing drive?

I thought and I could be wrong but can't be the CV's because the with the case off and the hubs on the CV's turn?

Case works because the shaft turns with the hubs out?

I thought it must be loosing drive between the CV's and the hub but with the hubs locked the cv's turn?

Possibilities or suggestions ....

forgot to lock one of the hubs in?
its possible that its stripped teeth off the crown wheel/pinion. It will all move in a no load situation like you discribe. is generally very noisey though.

Yeah both hubs in....

Thought about diffs, CV's, hub but nothing makes any noise?

A bit unclear from you description as to happening ( does moving mean rotating under power or capable of being turned by hand ? )

Still I'd check for a front hub not engaging as a first "guess"

happened to a friends sierra the exact same thing. what it was was that the spring in the hub that moves into the diff to lock it in 4wd was rusted and frozen up due to not having grease. its just the hum assembly that u have to check is moving properly.

the other thing ive seen is that someone who doesnt know what they are doing has put it back together wrong and that includes a mechanic i know which i never go to again.

thanks gumtree .... so the outside of the hub is turning but the inside isn't ???

yep, can confirm what gumtree has said.

Have seen a few Vits that have hardly/never seen 4wd with seized hubs. They're very easy to unbolt, lube and re-assemble. That'd be my first guess.

pull it apart and grease it up, or you can try some sierra hubs as they are the same as early vitara's and are made of metal not plastic, but seriously just fill it to the brim with grease

i use marine grease on my hubs too - it reacts better when exposed to copious amounts of water/mud/dirt etc... although almost any grease will do fine.

mrRocky wrote:pull it apart and grease it up, or you can try some sierra hubs as they are the same as early vitara's and are made of metal not plastic, but seriously just fill it to the brim with grease

filling them to the "brim" with grease isn't the best advice, they need greasing but filling them with grease is a bad idea IMO & what part of the Vitara hub is plastic, have you had one apart as the last time i pulled mine down for a clean & regrease it seemed to be made of metal...

the ones on my 91 swb vitara were plastic. not sure if they were aftermarket or not but bits started chipping of them and the spring retainer snapped on the inside.

mrRocky wrote:the ones on my 91 swb vitara were plastic. not sure if they were aftermarket or not but bits started chipping of them and the spring retainer snapped on the inside.

were they aisin free wheeling hubs?

i think they were amv or something like that, they lasted about 4 days before i flogged it onto the sand only to realise my front wheels wernt spinning