I know this will dissappoint some of you guys, but I kinda hurt my truck. I was pullin out some bushes and was on the third one, first two popped right out, the third...not so much. I was pulling from the front tow hooks, which I've also been told was dumb, however I did it and trashed the 4 wheel. I haven't had it in yet to be looked at, but the guy at the ford garage said he'd just replace the hubs with manual ones. Is this even possible, I didn't think you could do it on these trucks, is the guy at the garage a idiot or is there a way? thanks for any insight

2000 F150 XLT ex-cab 5.4, intake, throttle body spacer

 

Could you be a cousin of Triton/Mountaineer?

 

I don't believe so....

 

to my knowledge no body makes a manual hub conversion, what is wrong with the truck?

 

Do you ahve the flashing 4wd light? If so, sometimes a simple disconnect of the battery will reset it.

 

If I try to engage into 4 high it goes in and out smooth, however if I try to go either forward or reverse it will crunch and grind. At that point it still will disengage smoothly. @wd drive there is no noise or resistance, It also sounds to only have damaged something on the drivers side. I'm guessin I just blew out a hub, but I'm not real knowledgable about how the linkage works.

 

There are no hubs to blow out.

When it's crunching and grinding, will the truck MOVE at all, or does it just sit there crunching and grinding until you put it back in 2wd?

What about low range? Will it engage, and if so, will it move the truck anywhere?

If the truck moves, it's not the transfer case. If both driveshafts drive when 4 hi or 4low is engaged, it's not the transfer case. If everything works and everything drives the way it's supposed to, but the driveline makes noise in 4wd only, my money's on a bad U-joint on the front driveshaft.

-Joe

 

It will move in 4 hi and 4 low, so you're saying the universal joint, where is that, towards the wheel or towards the transfer case, or are there 4 of them?

 

Now we're getting somewhere.

The front driveshaft has two universal joints just like the rear driveshaft: One at the transfer case and one at the drive axle.

In 2wd, that front driveshaft is stationary. The Wheel bearings, CV halfshafts, and axle shafts all turn all the time, so you can rule those out (they would be squeaking all the time if they were bad). In 4wd, with the front driveshaft turning, the bad u-joint is now turning, and probably squeaking.

Any good driveline shop should be able to throw it on a lift and track it down in a matter of minutes.

-Joe

 

I really appreciate it, thanks alot, just having the knowledge of how it's all linked together for the mental picture is great. I have a haynes book for it however the only haynes book that I've had that I liked was for my 70 Vw bug. With our first snow last night here in western PA I was slidin all over the place, I thought to myself....this is why I have 4WD, and it's broke. Thanks again

 

Haynes and Chiltons are so basic, I don't even buy them anymore. Nothing but the OEM Ford service CDs for me. You can find them on Ebay on occasion, but mostly I just use the one online at work (I work for Ford). It's by FAR the most comprehensive manual set.

-Joe

 

I just got back from the local transmission place, The Front driveshaft snapped in half, dead center and with it took the O2 Sensor wire and wound it up, the guy said he'd put a used shaft in for $230 , his price new was around $400, Is a used one any different, I mean they're either broke or not broke right?

 

You never crawled underneath to see if it was anything obvious? That should have stood out like a sore thumb!!

Anywho, I would personally make some calls to some driveline shops and ask them about it.... Transmission shops don't build them. You could probably get a custom-made heavy-duty shaft for about the same price I would think....

It might be worth some phone calls at least.

-Joe