Touche or when backing up a huge travel trailer.

L8r,................dogger

 

agree 100%

Biggest shortcoming of this set up in my opinion

 

I have to go with the last few posts here. Back when I was driving a Ford I always used low range/hubs unlocked for any tight maneuvering and it worked great. Now with my Ram I can feel the steering wheel tugging back and forth when maneuvering on any hard surface and it makes me wonder how much stress that's putting on those front u-joints. So I try to stay in 2wd - but that sure makes it hard on the transmission, especially in reverse with a heavy load.

 

I was at a Campground in Hershey PA last weekend and ran into a nice group of guys that all were towing with Dodge Diesels. One guy had those front locking hubs i got to take a good look at them it has me wanting to do the conversion since. I didnt realize how expensive though. Not sure, i should maybe be doing other mods first!

 

ALOT LESS THAN THAT IF YOU BUY THE EMS KIT AND FIGURE IN THE $800 +/1 ON THE NEXT SET OF WHEEL BEARINGS YOU'LL BE BUYING. BTW MY STOCKERS BUGGERED OUT AT 57K MILES.

SO THE EXTRA $475 EWAS CHEAP SINCE I PLAN ON THIS TRUCK BEING AORUND TO 200K MILES

 

Does anyone have a link to the installation instructions? I'd like to know what this involves

 

The time it takes to pay for the kit in fuel savings means little to me. It's getting better mileage all the time and limiting the busy parts up front under normal driving that is nice. With all my other trucks that had hubs I'd just lock them before heading out on a mountain trip or four wheeling adventure. Then, when it was time to engage, the front was all lubed up and ready for action. It was just a flick of the lever. Hubs are a very nice part of any well equiped four wheeler.

The system we got stock on the Dodges is cheap to make, keeps the front end lubed, avoids that center disconnect and makes it easy for the masses to understand and use. But it is not very efficient and does not satisfy the purist.


John

 

Open beer 1

Jack truck up remove tire and wheel.

slide jack stand under frame rail.

dain some gear lube out of the differential or make sure the axle tube end is higher than the fill hole

Open beer 2

remove the two bolts holding the caliper on. pull caliper off and hang it over the upper control arm

remove rotor from hub and stud assembly

take dikes remove cotter pin

take big socket (since off hand i cant remember the size) and impact gun or 6' breaker bar break nut loose then use ratchet or impact gun to spin off. (this isnt really necessary since you are changing out the stub shaft)

Open beer 3

turn wheel (if necessary) to gain access to the inside of the knuckle that are 4 12 point bolts holding the hub assembly remove the 4 bolts. knocke hub assembly out of knuckle being gentle ususlaly doesnt work (do not open beer 4 until through this part) a 3' piece of pipe and a 10 lbs convincing tool come in handy as you may need to beat from the inside of the knuckle forcing the hub out. when the hub comes out it will usually being the axles with it lug that assembly both inner and outer axle over to a vice. at this point you will need to remove the 4 inner snap rings holding the ujoint in. after the snap rings are out you can beat a socket down on one cap and work the u joint loose just like changings a std ujoint in your driveline. or you can press the caps out using a vice.

open beer 4

careful not to loose any needles out of the u-joints now using the existing inner axle shaft and old ujoint (or new) take the stub shaft supplied with kit (outer axle shaft) beat the caps back onto the u joint and re install inner snap rings.

re-insert the inner and outer shafts for the side you are working on now take the provided new spindle pack the inner bearing with grease small needle bearing inside the tube of the spindle. installe the spindle onto the knuckle the axle shaft will slide through the hole the kit provides 4 bolts to bolt the spindle in place.

pack bearings with grease insde of the hub press into the cages and rollers plenty of grease. slide over spindle take first spindle nut (make sure pin on nut is poking out) and finger tighten to hold the hub on tighten with wrench then back off 1/4-1/8 turn about 20-22 ft/lbs book calls for between 20-28 ft/lbs IIRC . install lock keeper ring (washer looking thingy with holes in it)with locking pin holes slide in. ( you may have to turn nut some to make things line up, the washer can also be flipped over so it can slip over the pin on the nut) take second nut (the one without the pin sticking off of it) and tighten it down very tight, its hard to over do it here.

now wiggle the axle shaft out or put a little pressure from the ujoint pushing it out towards the spindle this should push the stub shaft out enough to expose the snap ring groove on the stub shaft

install snap ring over stub shaft then install the locking hub internals take install outer retainer ring on inside edge of hub to hold interals of hub in then bolt hub locking mechanism onto hub internals with 6 bolts provided.

enjoy a shot of crown and 5th beer now install wheel and tire enjoy the beer because no you are moving to the other side. repeat process add additional beers when needed


DD

when you see it it'll make more sense but its about a 4 hour job

 

Wow, in 4 hours I require more than 4 beers. Of course it took me about 6 hours to do mine since I had more than 4 beers in 4 hours. Really like the kit for the support it gives the front hub with 2 bearings/wheel instead of 1.

L8r,..........dogger

 

That is Per side

 

My last 7562 miles took me 341.012 gal for 22.175 MPG NO Plowing!

That's Hubs, G56 with GV OD, Smarty on Moderate #9 that's going 65-70 MPH with some good heavy 2 lane passing (Trans Canada 17)

Pre hubs= 13449 miles 720.01 for 18.68 MPG ... 2000 miles was pre GV OD and some plowing. Smarty on #3 standard TM. (pre clutch upgrade)

 

I just use 4 low for backing or manuvering on pavement with a trailer - it just makes too much sense not to. Otherwise the transmission would be fried in short order.

I figure if I snap an axleshaft or U-joint, Dodge can fix it under warranty. Maybe if they get enough of these claims, they will go back to unlockable hubs like they should have in the first place. The only way they will do the right thing is if it makes more sense from a financial perspective.

Maybe they'll go one better and go back to the Dana axles instead of the POS AAM units.

 

I have asked the question on another popular forum, but could you guys place some good pictures of your setup here? I am about to get the EMS kit and wanted to see how other guys are setting theirs up.

 

The current issue of 8 Lug Diesel has a pretty good write up on Warn's conversion....Its on a Ford, but it lists dodge applications too.

Not the same article but close:

http://www.dieselpowermag.com/tech/g...ade/index.html


chuck

 

I think dynatracs has a new hub they make that you can replace the warn hubs with and they don't stick out so far. This is not their "stub hub" kit but a totally new locking hub they just came out with. No telling what they want for them though.

Rootercycles here are the pics you asked for with and without the hub cap on.