Automatic To Manual Hub Conversion

Trucks Of The Month

Ranger Buyers Guide

By: Chris Emmons

Take the wheel off first!.......... Duh! Then pull the clips off the wheel studs.

Pull the hub off, and look at the inside of the old hub. It should be greasy, if not you will have troubles when you get deeper!

Next thing is the c-clip or "jezeus" clip (as in what you say when it goes flying!). A pair of old c-clip pliers did the job, sort of, by getting some out, and carefully prying.

Here's the clip, about where it goes

You can pull the toothed washer, and also the old automatic cam off. Keep the washer, and put the cam with the old hubs. You wont use it.

You should be able to rotate the big nut with a proper socket (ours was already loose!) and then take a strong magnet to pull the little wedge out. DON'T try to crank the nut off without doing this! you may never get it out!

Here's a closer look at the wedge

Take the outer spindle nut off all the way,

Repack the bearings (if desired) and install then new nut (w/pin, facing out) from the conversion nut package.

(btw, these are just std manual hub nuts with a locking pin washer) Nothing special, cheap too.

First torque to 35 ft lbs, while rotating. This seats the bearing

Then rotate back 90º (1/4 turn) and torque to 16 INCH lbs (fords factory setting) or whatever takes the slop out of the hub. I like mine a little tighter, it ends up being a 1/4 turn or so sometimes. With larger tires, 16 in lbs may not cut it.

After you get it set, install the locking washer, so that the pin fits in one of the holes. If you cant get it in, flip the washer, and it usually will go.

Next the outer locknut goes on, and it gets torqued to 150 ft-lbs

Now, install the toothed washer on the shaft, past the ring groove in the axle. You may have to pull the axle shaft out by hand to get it all the way on.

(My Bronco II had a thrust bearing and a washer, the Dana 35 in the Ranger shown did not)

Now install the c-clip, very carefully!

Look at your pretty new hub. Lightly grease the innards to prevent corrosion, but don't fill the bottom. Too much grease in the cap will prevent it from locking.

Install the cap, and Voila! your done!

Notes:

This comment was added by Bronc from our forum:

I just recently swapped my Dana 35 over to the Jeep manual hubs. All went well and was fairly easy, following the few write-ups in the tech pages. One thing I thought I would point out is how to remove the little wedge. It says to use a magnet to pull it out. That worked for one side, but the other was stuck in there. After a lot of screwing around, I decided to drive it through and if it ruined the bearing then fine. After I did that, I removed the spindle nut and found that the channel the wedge is in goes back further and is designed to have the wedge driven through to remove the nut. Then the wedge can be removed easily once the nut is off. Much easier than fooling around with a magnet.