Check your front axles

[L8 APEX]

I noticed my front axle hubs were stuck engaged while in 2wd mode and with the knobs in the auto position. This causes some vibes and loss of fuel economy. You can test your hubs by trying to turn the half shaft joint entering the hub behind the wheel. It should rotate freely. The fix is to jack up the wheel and rotate it back and fourth while working the hub knob. It should release by doing that. At 42K it is out of warranty of course...

[skalywags]

I noticed my front axle hubs were stuck engaged while in 2wd mode and with the knobs in the auto position. This causes some vibes and loss of fuel economy. You can test your hubs by trying to turn the half shaft joint entering the hub behind the wheel. It should rotate freely. The fix is to jack up the wheel and rotate it back and fourth while working the hub knob. It should release by doing that. At 42K it is out of warranty of course...
mine are fine! oh wait my truck is always stuck in 2wd, with no front axle, it's a Lightning.

[PoorSvtman]

i believe that with ford 4x4s that after switching out of 4x4 your supposed to drive in reverese a few feet do disingage the front axles... I know the older 4x4s say to do that in the owners manual

[Mark #2]

i believe that with ford 4x4s that after switching out of 4x4 your supposed to drive in reverese a few feet do disingage the front axles... I know the older 4x4s say to do that in the owners manual
The K5 works that way.

[L8 APEX]

The ESOF is mocked and known to have issues among the 4wd community. Electronic Shift On the Fly... Jimmy's Excursion won't engage manually anymore and when it does his stick worse than mine. The manual says to just switch and drive reverse is not required for this Ford app. My dad added Warn hubs to his 76 K5 so he could get 2wd or something. The 76 was a full time 4wd truck I guess. Auto hubs just suck.

[microsuck]

my f-150 used to have the auto-hubs. I HATED IT. They would ALWAYS fail me when I needed them the most. I know the superduty has the Auto / Manual settings. Thats at least a little better. I like how the dodge dosent use hubs. they are fixed to the axles. Google "Central Axle disconnect"

[bobbywade69]

Yes most of the 67-79 chevys used the NP203 full time transfer case but in order to put hubs in you had to drop in a part time gear in the transfer case because if not when you switched the hubs the truck won't drive because it relies on the front end to drive the truck 60/40% power split!!


The ESOF is mocked and known to have issues among the 4wd community. Electronic Shift On the Fly... Jimmy's Excursion won't engage manually anymore and when it does his stick worse than mine. The manual says to just switch and drive reverse is not required for this Ford app. My dad added Warn hubs to his 76 K5 so he could get 2wd or something. The 76 was a full time 4wd truck I guess. Auto hubs just suck.

[L8 APEX]

I drove all the way to New Mexico with the front hubs engaged. I jiggled the 4wd switch a dozen times while rolling back and fourth and they released. Got 2 more mpg on the way home.