headstrong

My son has a mid 90's model explorer with manual locking hubs. The driver side will not disengage. when he turns the hub it springs back to lock as soon as he lets go of it. I know this is primarily an F150 forum as I am a member for my own truck but ford is ford and you guys have the knowledge. He did unfortunately drive it like this at speeds of 45+ mph and when he got home from work last night you could easily hear the gears or splines grinding. My question is where do I start to just get it safe to drive without having to worry about anything locking up or shattering the pumpkin until we can get it fixed properly. Or is it a simple issue that can be fixed with a little grease or what the underlying issue could be. We live down some pretty nasty clay roads (South Georgia's Interstate) could it just be an accumulation of mud and clay not letting things let go or what? thanks for the help in advance!

fishbones182

I would def keep all the running gear clean or as clean as i could. Sounds like a bad hub though.

dan2286

You shouldn't be hurting anything with the hub engaged. All those were for is to help save some some fuel. If there is grinding, you might want to check diff oil.

You should be able to pull the manual hub apart and clean everything. Lightly grease everything and put it back together. If that doesn't fix, there should be service kits available to replace the stuff that wears out. They are pretty cheap.