Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hi All. Long time lurker, First time poster...

I've finally gone out and gotten me a bright red '93 Vitara soft top, and was looking forward to putting the little machine through it's paces on some boggy ground.
Nice thought at least.....

I have a suspicion that my front hubs are not engaging, hence no front wheel driving acton when I get out in the boggy bits.

The switch on the hubs turn ok, and when I jacked the back up when in 4 wheel drive, the front shaft turns along with the rear wheels, it just doesn't turn the wheels.


Anyone have any ideas of whet's wrong with my new toy?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks.

simple: its either you have no front drive shafts, or the locking ring inside the hubs are not sliding.

usually mud and water get in, and dries or jams it all up. this does not allow for the locking ring to move over the splines of the axle, giving no drive through that hub.

and sometimes when this happens, when you unlock the hub through the switch, the spring can sometimes pull out of the locking ring, so even if the switch turns good, you are not moving much inside.

i usually take my hubs off and clean and re-grease every time i change engine oil.

i just undo the 12mm nuts on the hub, not the allen key bolts, and take the whole hub off. now on a clean work bench, or the drive way, undo the allen key bolts. this takes the switch off, and will reveal the spring, and the locking ring. clean thoroughly, and re grease. do not pack full of grease, just a healthy smear all over the joint. make sure the locking ring is still attached to the spring and switch, and moves freely, set to free, the locking ring should be compressing the spring, and put back together.
when you switch to lock, the locking ring should move away front the switch.

usually people mark the position of everything before pulling it apart, so you can put it back together how it all is, but i dont much worry about it anymore.

hope this helps. if you get stuck, i can pull my hub apart and take some pics.

oh yeah, when i 1st got my vit, it was doing the same thing, i 1st resorted to smacking it with a hammer until it locked in, but because the hubs are aluminium, its not hard to deform them.

Thanks for that.

I have front driveshafts, and they do turn. So it must be the locking rings.

First thing tommorow I will rip the hubs off and give them a quick lube.


Hopefully this will sort the problem.

Thanks again.

-D

Just remember that the spring inside the FWH behind the locking ring can rust and perish, rendering the unit to being a throw away as you can't buy a new spring. If the FWH has never had any upkeep it is quite common for the spring to be snapped because of the rust situation.

Podge wrote:Just remember that the spring inside the FWH behind the locking ring can rust and perish, rendering the unit to being a throw away as you can't buy a new spring. If the FWH has never had any upkeep it is quite common for the spring to be snapped because of the rust situation.

and that too

Tried taking the hubs apart this morning. Unfortunatly, it looks like someone else has tried to do this before me and F&$%ed the grub screws holding the top plate on.

So the easiest option might be to just replace them.

Will the locking hubs from a sierra fit? or do they have a different spline?

-D

Same spline.

Spline is the same but both AVM and ORA list different part numbers for Sierra and Vitara FWH. Probably something to do with the offset as the bolt patterns are the same.

you will need free wheeling hubs from a sj80 sierra (96 to 98)

a sj70 fwh will not work.

mud4b wrote:you will need free wheeling hubs from a sj80 sierra (96 to 98)

a sj70 fwh will not work.

i got some sj80 free wheelin hubs

will throw the compleat diff in for free

$200