I let a shop install my front Bilsteins versus my usual doing most everything myself, was kind of a test of the shop for other vehicles... well now the driver side axle won't disengage, they say nothing wrong

I have vacuum to the hub but need to grab gauge for leakdown, whats acceptable leakdown and what should the vacuum measurement be? Also how could they have messed up the IWE by doing shocks?

And how do you find vacuum leak on this system, if it was pressurized could do the soap bubbles, or was part of intake can use starter fluid to see if engine rpm changes but that wouldn't work here for this system

 

I also had a mom n pop shop screw up my IWE, passenger side though. They said they didn't break anything, installed properly and didn't take responsibility. Check you nuts on top of the strut, my passenger side was loose. It's fairly common for shops to forget to tighten that down AFTER the truck is on the ground and under its own weight.


My wife said I should take my truck back to them and let them know they lost a customer and where they screwed up. It's a little heart breaking, they had a very good reputation and were 1 of 3 in my city that was trusted. They've done work on my previous truck without issues.

I talked to my uncle who has his shop trucks brought there and he said he's started using other companies because their customer service and craftsmanship has gone down.

I'm choosing to just walk away with the attitude "you have a good experience somewhere and you tell one, you have a bad experience and you tell 10...."

Anyways..

I just disconnected the vacuum at the hub and capped the lines and nipples.

I know mine is a hub issue and not a line, I put my thumb over the hose after I disconnected it and felt the vacuum on my thumb.

As far as I know it's one of two or three things that can fail or be damaged.
1. The hub
2. The lines
3. The nipple unit on the firewall that has the check valves.

As for screwing up the hubs, they have to remove the axle shafts to drop down the lower control arm far enough to get the strut outta the way.

 

Yes I had the thumb suction, just need to test is that enough or is there a slow leak which is why I was asking about leakdown and vacuum pressure. I didn't realize had to pull the axle for this job, I've never had to on my other trucks or awd cars when doing shocks/struts. Capping it doesn't solve the issue, leaves that axle engaged which is probably worse to just be spinning one side.. don't want the noise, wear & tear or reduced mpg of spinning it for no reason.

Basically looks like would need to tear everything back apart to do this, including that lower shock bolt which was kind of the reason I just had them do it so I didnt have that crazy 400 ft lb bolt to deal with.

This is why I do things myself, at least if I screwed it up it would be on me. Grrrr

 

If it causes so much wear and tear or more damage than just having one side engaged, why do other manufacturers leave their front axles live? Why did ford keep them engaged before installing IWE's? My ranger had a live front axle and in 120k Kms I had no issues. 7 years of engaging and dissengaging 4wd when I needed it. It would have lasted longer but I nicked a cv boot while changing a coil. That and I traded it in on my current truck.

So far I'm sitting at 1500 kms with my vacuum lines capped and I've had no problems.

I'm not buying that .01 increase in mpg with the IWE functioning properly.

 

If you don't do the install right, you end up breaking the splined part in the IWE that locks the axle and hub together. The best tool to test that is a vacuum pump with a gauge. From my experience the blader in the IWE is fine but the IWE doesn't respond to vacuum changes like it should because of the broken IWE part.

 

IWE ended up coming out in 2 parts, the diaphragm came out with axle, the gear and seal I had to pull out of the knuckle. Not sure if they are supposed to easily come apart but didn't want to mess with the replacement. All seems good now

My Rangers (94 & 95) had autohubs that failed and I switched them to manual.

Your results may have varied but I've picked up at least 1.5 mpg since replacing that IWE which is about $250 a year not to mention the quieter ride.