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There is a fairly large amount of power consumed in just rotating all of the gears, oil, etc. in the front axle of any 4WD (or 6WD) vehicle. Based on gas mileage considerations, I figure it to be around 28%. If your truck has the front axle disengaged, by way of the transfer case, the road...

I think it did get mentioned somewhere up in the previous posts. The rotation rate of the unlocked hub's axle, universals, etc... should be exactly the same as the locked axle, but in the opposite direction. The spiders are idler gears, so they don't contribute to the gear ratio when you have...

For some folks, arguments always have to get to personal attacks...I'm not sure why. I think it it probably has to do with them assuming that everyone that has any disagreement with them is stupid. Of course the spider gears turn in normal operation. If they didn't, there would be no point to...

With the very few on road miles I drive my deuce, all of this talk of lockouts sounds like a non-issue to me... but that is not the point. This very old thread (from 2009) is about issues affecting longevity of the front end parts, and fuel mileage. One lockout hub protects one U-joint from...

It's not a Ford thing, it's a universal joint thing. It happens on all 4WD vehicles that have universal joints in the front end. Which is exactly why I said it is a universal joint issue. I said my peace about the spider gears a couple of posts back. If you have lockout hubs on both wheels...

No! Not in this case, the truck has its hubs locked, but its transfer case is open (2WD). The lurching is caused by the universal joints on the front axles turning at a tight radius. Think about what would happen if a universal joint was set up so that the two shafts were at 90 degrees to...

Are we sure that the design, fit, finish, and metallurgy in our 45 year old deuce spider sets are the same as is in a 25 year old Chevy that was made for automatic hubs? I remember a time when car engines lasted about 100K miles before they were burning oil, had sloppy rod and main bearings...

I'm perfectly willing to accept that the friction from the spider gears will be small enough to not really matter as far as pulling on the steering goes. I don't believe that over the long term this isn't a reliability problem, though. It will also cause drive-ability problems. I know that...

Your post came out while I was typing my last post. You are right, but what you aren't considering is the spider gears on our big Rockwell differentials are not designed to spin much, or very often. They only spin when the right and left wheels are turning at different speeds, and usually...

On further reflection, the friction loss due to only unlocking one hub wouldn't be as much as the 28% my F250 suffers when both hubs are locked in 2WD, because the ring and pinion gears are not moving in that condition, only the spider gears. ...BUT,... What about those spider gears? In...

And you don't think that will increase fuel consumption over a two hub lockout? -Chuck

Are we still talking about using only one hub lockout on a front axle, or has this morphed into something else? Which simply disconnects the front drive shaft from the front differential, right? I can't help thinking you are talking about something other than using a lockout on only one hub on...

If I can "conjure up" a situation on the first time I ever drove a 4WD truck with its hubs locked in snow, it is clearly a problem that should be watched. What I took away from that crash, I mean lesson, was if the truck's hubs are locked, and it is all slippery out, the truck must stay in 4WD...

To give you another example of the problem, a long time ago, when I first bought a 4WD F250 truck, I took it out to play in some fresh snow. It was very cold, and the snow was about 4 inches of powder. I found the truck had so much traction in 4WD that I decided shift it into 2WD and drive...

Lockouts can make a big difference. On my F250, they make about a 3MPG difference. They also reduces the vibration, as the front U-joints are not turning. And, most importantly, it keeps the front wheels rotating on snowy roads when you are in rear wheel drive... It takes a lot of torque to...

You may be right, but it wasn't done for the reason you state. Let's do the math: 4.10/4.11 x 100 feet = 99.76 feet. That means that your front will try to go 100 feet when the back goes 99.76 feet.... 3 inches difference every 100 feet is insignificant. You get as much variation in normal...

Sad to say, but in '86, at least, Ford doesn't agree with you at all! All of their 4WD trucks use the same ratio front and rear. I verified this by going through my service manuals, and by checking the tags on my truck. My F250 has a Ford 10.25" limited slip in the rear with a 4.10 ratio, and...