Thread: Selectro front hubs

Originally Posted by chazza

Your post is only relevant Ian, if 4WD is engaged at the time.

With the hubs engaged and 4WD selected, no wind-up will occur,

Cheers Charlie

I presume Charlie, that you meant 4wd NOT selected

Thanks Numpty, I have amended my post to what I meant to say

Cheers Charlie

Been away for several days, chaps - really appreciate the collective thought here. Just returned from a trip to Canungra with the front disengaged and I couldn't really pick it in terms of fuel consumption or any thing else.

Thanks again to each of you for adding to the discussion.

Originally Posted by B.S.F.Nut

If you drive with the hubs disengaged and you break a rear half shaft the hand break doesn't work.If this happens on a slope in the middle of town you're lucky,because you can shout at passers by to place something behind a wheel.<snip>

I had this happen on Parramatta Road in "lane 2" on Taverners Hill in Leichhardt Sydney during morning peak hour. I had no drive and of course no hand brake so I just had hold on my foot brake to stop traffic until someone road raged up to my window. I then asked him to turn the hubs on each side so I could continue up the hill and into the first side street.

With that issue, the problems of uneven prop shaft wear and imperceptible fuel economy differences I wouldn't ever fit free-wheel hubs again and in fact have removed them from my Gog.

I think free-wheel hubs are a major cause of broken axles.
I broke one back in 1968 at the Leyland Bros centre tree blaze near The Alice. In high range reversing out. Heavy sand. Dropped into low forgetting hubs were out. Snap. Front wheel drive to Port Augusta.

Hi All
omitted to mention
at the start of my coment, you should make sure the transfer case is in 2 wheel drive.
If in 4 wheel drive, all I said would be correct.
cheers
Ian

Personally I think the question of whether or not to dis-engage free-wheeling hubs only matters if you are talking about regular driving miles (ie. 30,000+km per year). I never engaged the hubs on my Series III except when needed off-road. The logic of unnecessary friction and wear on road won out for me.

For the kind of miles you are likely to do in Matilda, the benefits either way are negligible. I would go with the - leave them dis-engaged but if you're needing to have a fiddle with something then lock them in for a bit.

As Matilda is a beast of pleasure rather than burden, you could choose by aesthetics.
I prefer the look of the standard hubs with those little metal hub caps whereas others I am sure prefer the chunky look of the selectable hubs.