94 Ranger Manual Hubs

[thrashman]

Having an odd problem I am hoping someone else has run into -- approx. 2 yrs. ago I converted the auto hubs on my 94 Ranger XLT (4.0 V-6) to manual hubs (WARN). I bought the hubs at the dealer, but then found the same hub (same part #) at a local shop for 1/2 the price so I used those. Anyway, today I was replacing the front brakes and decided to grease the bearings while I was at it. When I removed the hub, I found a mess of metal shavings - I thought my hub was toast, however upon investigating I found that the axel spacer had been ground down by the end of the bearing race (not sure if that is what it is called, but it's the sleave the bearings ride on and the drive shaft comes through). It appears as if something had been pushing on the end of the drive shaft and forced the axel spacer to grind against the end of the bearing race. I then pulled the other side and found it to be in the same condition.

I took the hubs and the spacers to my local Ford dealer and spoke with a mechanic there - all he could do was scratch his head. Said he had worked on a lot of manual hubs, but never saw anything like that. His only suggestion was that I had the wrong hubs on - said to check with his parts desk and see if they had more then one hub listed for my truck. The parts guy said there "could" be more then one "manual" hub listed for my truck, but since it was originally auto hubs he couldn't tell me for sure. The local parts where I originally bought the hubs said that there was only 1 hub that would fit my truck.....

Anyway - I bought 2 new spacers ($15 a pop) and put my hubs back together. I greased the bearings real good and was careful to makes sure I tightened everything to recommened tourque. I then took it out for a test drive - run very smooth with no noise (as it always has). It want in and out of 4 wheel without a problem. When I got back I pulled one of the hubs and looked at the spacer - sure enough there was a small scar on the back side were it was starting to wear again.

I am at a loss - anyone have any ideas at all?? All I can figure is either something is pushing on the end of the axel shaft or something is pulling on it from the inside.

Thanks for reading - sorry it was so long.