hey guys...
recently slid on some ice and bashed through the gate at work...had to replace the bent drag link, fairly easy...but when i took it to the shop for an alignment, they told me my ball joints were shot, as well as the drivers side tie rod end. i'd noticed the tie rod end when i was doing the drag link, i'm a little worried that the spot on the knuckle where the tie rod meets it may be wallered...getting a $700 quote for the ball joints made me want to do them myself. after reading lots of other posts, i think i can get them.
so anyway, my question is what do i need to do to get the warn manual locking hubs off??? i can't seem to figure that one out. i hope it's something simple that i'm missing... any advice on getting down to the ball joints would be appreciated!

 

The Warn manual hub has a series of holes in the chrome face of it where you'll find screw heads. My current hubs have 3 machine thread) screws with torx heads but the older ones have more screws and have allen head screws. These screws have to come out to disassemble the hub. That's the good news. The bad news is these screws almost always are frozen to the hub face and strip out or break easily when you try to remove them. In the past I've just drilled the heads off the screws taking care to use a drill bit that will not be big enough to cut into the hub face. There's a rebuild kit available at parts stores that comes with new screws and o-rings & whatever you need to rebuild the hubs. The new screws will give you an idea of the size drill bit to use. After the heads are gone you can remove the hub face and the rest of the screw(s) usually come out easily with a vise-grip or whatever as it's the head of the screw that freezes in place and not the threads. I've done this several times (I've only worked on the old allen head type) to replace bearings but have never replaced a balljoint so I'll leave that to those who are more knowledgeable. Hope this helps.

 

I just got done doing all 4 of my ball joints about a week ago on my 93 4wd. Everyone I have talked to said that Moog had the best ball joints. They are greasable which means you will only have to change them once. It cost me about $150 for the ball joints and about 4 1/2 hrs in the garage. If you have a local Autozone, you will need to get a Ball joint press through their loan a tool program. Basically they sell you the tool and when you are done with it, you return it. I have automatic hubs on my truck, so I'm not too familiar with the removal of warn hubs.

 

I have yet to break a screw in my hubs. I have the factory hubs in both my 83 and 93, these are actually rebadged warn hubs. The one drivers side that is currently on my 93 says warn while the passengers says ford. The reason why I pulled the covers off my 83 to put on my 93 is when I replaced my ball joints the drivers side hub and spindle was full of water due to the orings on the hub being trashed. There is a couple of clips holding the main hub body into the wheel hub, an external that is on the outside edge of the axle and an internal that you need a small screwdriver or pick set to get out. You do not have to remove the center gear and spring if you have the proper clip tool. Some of these use a internal clip to hold the center gear of the hub in place, this is different than the one on the axle even though they will look similar. Both mine have a single set screw to hold the center gear in.

 

thanks..
i've gotten my caps and all the retaining rings off before but couldn't figure out how to pull the hub out...found another post on here that said you can use the allen head bolts to draw out the hub innards...anyone else try this method?

 

Yes that works, sometimes it is hard to grab the hub I totally spaced out on using the allen bolts to pull them out. Remember Warn hubs do not use a lot of grease when you put them back together. The easiest method is to by the spray grease and coat them down before reassembly. My 83 had warn hubs to begin with, one inner broke because of way to much grease, I could not even see or remove the spring because of it. The part number and ID matched the Ford replacement I purchased to replace it.

 

I'll be putting my right side back together tomorrow. I'm replacing axle shaft but it's all apart down to the ball joints. I'll post pix tomorrow night under axle shaft replacement.

 

please do, my92. i'm waiting on the parts now, probably going to try for it early next week.