Thread: Selectro free wheeling hubs

Hello from Brisbane.

For what it's worth I fitted a set of AVM hubs to a 109" we had on our farm back in the 80s. It was in the foothills of the Barrington Range in the Hunter and rarely out of low range. Never had any problems in nearly 20 years.

Having said that, I have no plans to fit freewheeling hubs to my present truck which doesn't have them and is mainly going to get road use. General opinion seems to be that freewheeling hubs offer little gain for the cost.

Cheers,

In my experience of free wheeling hubs over the last fifty years, I have yet to see any fail, although I have seen a few give trouble (oil leaks common).

The problem with them on Series Landrovers, in my opinion, is not that they are likely to fail, but that they offer little benefit, but do run the risk of lubrication failure on the top swivel bushing, as this depends on oil thrown by the spinning U-joint. This can be avoided by simply engaging four wheel drive (not on the move) for at least a few hundred metres every week or so.

I have tried my current 2a carefully with hubs engaged and disengaged, and can find no appreciable difference in performance, and no measurable difference in fuel consumption. In practice, I leave them engaged all the time except when doing long distance highway driving.

John

Originally Posted by bacicat

Or ditch the free wheeling hubs...

What he said

Seriously though, if they're no trouble, leave them on. I've just replaced the old MAP fwh's on my S1 with standard flanges as one had a cracked outer plate and leaked oil. As John said, I've never been able to distinguish any advantages or disadvantages one way or the other.

Hello again.

I only have experience with the Warn, AVM, and Aisin (on Toyotas) hubs, so can't relate to Fairey types etc. However, I often wonder if some of the reported failures are due to not operating the hubs correctly.

An old mechanic at CSIRO originally pointed out to me that locking the hubs didn't necessarily lock the hubs unless you heard the audible click of the ring gear engaging. Sure enough if you didn't hear it but gently rocked the truck back or forward more often than not you would hear that "click, click" as they engaged. My thoughts are that some folks lock the hub then engage 4wd, especially low, and stick the gin into it when the hubs have only partly engaged the axle - the result.....

So, for travel in the back blocks we would engage the hubs when you met the gravel, ensure they had engaged by slowly taking up the clutch and off you went. Never had any trouble with them. But again, we only used free wheeling hubs because the trucks came fitted with them.

Cheers,

I have AVM's on the 2a and when it was the daily driver I would engage them for 10klm every week,so that they stirred the oil in the swivel housings and rotated the front prop shaft to negate spline wear,now that it is on historic rego and not used much I leave them engaged for trips of less than 50k, I did find a very slight improvement in performance and fuel economy with front drive disengaged.

cheers

I beleave I spelt mine wrong here's a pic ImageUploadedByAULRO1425443835.528154.jpg


1969 109" 2a named loti

Originally Posted by S3ute

Hello again.

.......
An old mechanic at CSIRO originally pointed out to me that locking the hubs didn't necessarily lock the hubs unless you heard the audible click of the ring gear engaging. Sure enough if you didn't hear it but gently rocked the truck back or forward more often than not you would hear that "click, click" as they engaged. My thoughts are that some folks lock the hub then engage 4wd, especially low, and stick the gin into it when the hubs have only partly engaged the axle - the result.....

So, for travel in the back blocks we would engage the hubs when you met the gravel, ensure they had engaged by slowly taking up the clutch and off you went. Never had any trouble with them. But again, we only used free wheeling hubs because the trucks came fitted with them.

Cheers,

The only hubs I have actually owned, Warn and Husky, had arrows or other marks to show when the hub is engaged.

Neither use a ring gear - Warn use a dog clutch that has the hub part moved axially by a multistart thread - it has pointed ends on the teeth for easy engagement, although if the transfer case is in four wheel drive it is possible that the dog clutch may still refuse to engage, but this is clearly indicated by the markings on the hub.

The Husky hubs have four substantial steel keys that move radially to engage, with engagement by spring and disengagement by cam. If the keys are not opposite the keyway, they will engage within a quarter turn of the wheel.

John

Originally Posted by jamesnedtaylor

I beleave I spelt mine wrong here's a pic ImageUploadedByAULRO1425443835.528154.jpg


1969 109" 2a named loti

Just a minor spelling error!

John