I bought my 97 Tracker a few months ago, it has auto hubs and the 4wd has never worked.  The transfer case works and the front drive shaft does turn when 4wd is engaged.  Is there anything other than the hubs that could be the problem?

Assuming it is the hubs, is it a big job for a novice mechanic to replace them with manual ones?  Some of the hubs I''ve seen online say the spindle nuts will have to be changed going from auto to manual.  Can anyone point me to a procedure for this?  I thought I found one here but it was more of a gear change than anything else.

Thanks!

There is an article in the latest issue of 4wheel and offroad magazine on this. It shows hub replacement on a Sidekick from auto to manual and that one didnt have to have any different spindle nut. Just a straight swap. 

Later,
Bill

I bought my 97 Tracker a few months ago, it has auto hubs and the 4wd has never worked.  The transfer case works and the front drive shaft does turn when 4wd is engaged.  Is there anything other than the hubs that could be the problem?

Assuming it is the hubs, is it a big job for a novice mechanic to replace them with manual ones?  Some of the hubs I''ve seen online say the spindle nuts will have to be changed going from auto to manual.  Can anyone point me to a procedure for this?  I thought I found one here but it was more of a gear change than anything else.

Thanks!

Nope. Pretty easy.  I swapped a set of Samurai locking hubs to a '93 'Kick without changing anything.

There is an article on Offroad.com and a locking hub maintenance .PDF file from yankeetoys.org describing how to do it.

Do a search for "auto locking" at Ack's FAQ to find the links to the above documents.  The above search will also turn up information on how to engage and disengage auto-locking hubs (see the dolly towing post).

There are lots of searchable links to other stuff there too!

Just be organized and take a little time to clean stuff up so it works better when the hubs are re-installed.

Hope this helps!

Excellent!  Thanks for all the great info!

I went looking for the Off Road hub swap article in 5 different stores today and of course they are already on the JANUARY issue      If someone could scan the article for me and send it to autoxdriver|removethispart|@gmail.com I would be forever greatful!    There was good info on offroad.com but no hub swap procedure.

Its funny my front hubs don't look like other autos I've seen.  It doesn't say anything on them and they look exactly like the rear ones.  Could the previous owner have put 2wd front hubs on my Tracker?

I went looking for the Off Road hub swap article in 5 different stores today and of course they are already on the JANUARY issue  >:(    If someone could scan the article for me and send it to autoxdriver|removethispart|@gmail.com I would be forever greatful!  ;D  There was good info on offroad.com but no hub swap procedure.

Its funny my front hubs don't look like other autos I've seen.  It doesn't say anything on them and they look exactly like the rear ones.  Could the previous owner have put 2wd front hubs on my Tracker?

post some pics if you can. it's possible that the writing on the auto hubs are just worn off.

weird though.

Hi,
I don't have any pictures, but... I swapped the auto hubs on my '98 Sidekick for manual ones a couple of months ago. It was a short & straightforward job; no special tools or additional parts were needed. Don't worry too much if you can't find the magazine article- if you can change the oil, you can change the hubs.
  - Rob

I went looking for the Off Road hub swap article in 5 different stores today and of course they are already on the JANUARY issue  >:(    If someone could scan the article for me and send it to autoxdriver|removethispart|@gmail.com I would be forever greatful!  ;D  There was good info on offroad.com but no hub swap procedure.

Look for the current issue of 4-Wheel & Off-Road, not Off-Road.  Sidekicks/Tracker's aren't bling blingy enough for Off-Road.

Its funny my front hubs don't look like other autos I've seen.  It doesn't say anything on them and they look exactly like the rear ones.  Could the previous owner have put 2wd front hubs on my Tracker?

There's no such thing.

The early Vits sold over here had no FWHs at all just the little caps over the end of the driveshafts similar to the later Vits with the air operated diffs.

I went looking for the Off Road hub swap article in 5 different stores today and of course they are already on the JANUARY issue  >:(    If someone could scan the article for me and send it to autoxdriver|removethispart|@gmail.com I would be forever greatful!  ;D  There was good info on offroad.com but no hub swap procedure.

Its funny my front hubs don't look like other autos I've seen.  It doesn't say anything on them and they look exactly like the rear ones.  Could the previous owner have put 2wd front hubs on my Tracker?

You will have to save the picture and open it to zoom in, or I can email the original 2mb pic to whoever wants it.

And what about the Warn Hub Fuse?  Are those really worth the trouble?  Or do they break too easily? I just found those on RRO, and though Hmmmm.....can you get away with bigger tires with out the breakage associated with bigger tires?
Jeff

Actually from what I have heard (I believe it was from Bobzooki) the fuses are made for stronger axles (ie jeeps) and the axles on a sidekick will break before the fuse does.

Well So much for that idea.  :'(

 I guess I could call RRO about that, but that makes sense.

Jeff