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- Compton, CA 90220
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Hub No-Lockee
I recently purchased a 2001 F-350 Ford Powerstroke diesel truck. It’s equipped with the shift-on-the-fly 4wd feature via a dash-mounted knob. My understanding is that the hubs are supposed to lock automatically when 4wd is selected, but mine will not. I had to run the hubs manually from the “Auto” position to the “Lock” position to free myself from a sticky situation. I suspect that one of the hubs is at fault.
- Danny Spencer
- Myakka City, Florida
You didn’t say if your axle was a Dana 50 or a Dana 60, but I think the systems are the same. Automatic hubs may be more user friendly but they are not necessarily more reliable. If you are totally enamored of the user friendliness, I’d suggest pulling them apart and looking for gummed up works. The previous owner may never have used 4wd and the grease (if there was any grease) might have gone bad. In my experience, hubs are always inadequately lubricated. Simply clean them in solvent, blow them utterly dry and use some good synthetic grease on the moving parts. You may find a mechanical problem as well. If you find that water or gunk has entered the hub, do the clean and relube outlined above, or you may want to consider an upgrade to a set of Warn Premium hubs. They’re pretty water resistant, though you will have to get out to lock ‘em.
To Gear or Not to Gear, That Is the Question
I just bought a cherry 1995 Ford F-150 with the 5.8L and E4OD. It had only 26K miles on it and the original 235/75 tires. The original papers in the glove box let me know it has 3.55 gears. The guys at 4 Wheel Parts in Salt Lake City installed a ProComp 4-inch lift with ProComp All Terrain 33x12.50-15s on 15x8 Extreme wheels. I did install a K&N filter, Accel cap, wires and plugs, MSD-6 ignition and coil. This is an everyday driver so I don’t want to get too radical, but I do want to get back my low-end grunt. On a budget, do I put money into the engine (intake spacer, headers, exhaust, Jet Module, etc) OR change the gears to 3.73s, 4.10s or ???. can’t afford both. Which is the best performancewise versus budgetwise.
- Pete
- West Valley, Utah
A great question, Pete! Using the equivalent ratio formula, your truck should have about 4.10s to give similar performance to 3.55s with the stock tires (about 29 inches tall). With the old tires, your truck ran about 1900 rpm at 65mph. With the new tires and the same gears, it will run under 1700 rpms. The lift and bigger tires will put more of a load on the truck from reduced aerodynamic and rolling resistance. Its doubtful your truck could pull overdrive much of the time, even with the mods you mentioned, and it would still be extremely sluggish off the line. With 4.10s, you’d be running about 1950 rpm in overdrive, just a skosh over stock, and you’d have good acceleration. I’d put my money on the gears.
A Hottie On Hills
I have a 1991 Ford F-150 Supercab with a 5.0L and E4OD trans. It has a Rancho 5-inch lift, with 35-inch Mud Terrains, 4.56 gears and a rear Detroit. It has a 3-chamber, 3” Flowmaster, K&N FIPK kit and MSD distributor, coil and wires. I was pulling Chiriaco Summit in August, with the air conditioning and overdrive off, doing about 70, and halfway up the hill it got way too warm for my taste... 3/4 of the way up the gauge. BTW, I had the cooling system worked on, complete with a new clutch fan and 180 degree thermostat. Please help me pull that hill with less temp.
- Kristoffer Olson
- Downey, California
You know your truck, so I’m assuming the gauge reading was abnormal. First off, you need to correlate the “3/4 of the way up the gauge” to an actual temperature. If the actual temp was even as high as 225 degrees, on a hot day, working hard, that’s not too outrageous, but not ideal either. I would suggest buying a “test” mechanical gauge, with actual numbers and if you can tee it in to the same spot where the original sending unit reads, you can correlate temps directly. Otherwise, find a test drive where you can work the truck for a few miles at speed, record the place on the gauge where the original gauge reads, then install the test gauge and read the actual number in the same place and at the same outside temps. What are good numbers? I like to see engines run at 210-251 degrees in all loads and all conditions and no hotter. Though that’s not always possible, I prefer to save those 225 and 230 degree temps for the day Osama is after me! Assuming you are reading high, start with the basics. Check the coolant mixture with a tester. It should be 50/50 coolant and water. Make sure the front of the radiator and A/C condenser are not choked with bugs or debris. Make sure the ignition timing is set close to spec. Speaking of timing, that MSD distributor may have a performance advance curve that could make your otherwise stock engine run hotter. If your truck has lots of miles, the catalytic converter could be partially plugged and that extra backpressure will cause the engine to run hot as well. Look into the radiator with the cap off and look for scale on the tubes. If you see more than a small amount, some of your tubes could be plugged with it. You can have the radiator “rodded” at a radiator shop, but check on a new radiator too. A larger radiator may be offered for your application (a 4 core in place of a 3-core, for example) and the cost of a new radiator isn’t that much more than having your old one rodded. Also, there are high flow thermostats that will allow more water flow than standard ones. A last thought concerns the tranny. In third, with the converter unlocked, the tranny will generate a lot more heat. In new condition, your truck is built to handle that, but age and miles take their toll. A larger radiator can help dissipate that extra heat, but you might consider an auxiliary cooler and/or a tranny temp gauge.