A word of caution for all the do it youre selfers, with the after market manual lock out hub conversion kits. I purchased and installed the kit myself with no problems, easiest install i ever done. worked great. a year later the steering started behaving funny, i would turn a corner and the steering wheel would turn but the truck didnt and than it would suddenly turn which was way to sharp causing all kinds of quick reactions to keep from running into things i didnt want too. I checked the steering gear box and it had a little play in the input so i adjusted it down and removed the play with the adjustment on top of the box, this turning issue wasnt consistant and happened only when you didnt expect it, i checked everything i could get my hands on and evderything felt good. after it becoming a real issue on interstate when i tried to pass a semi truck and the steering got real hard trying to steer back into the original lane and get in front of the big truck and than suddenly shooting across the lane almost hitting the ditch i seeked proffesional help on line with one of those ask a mechanic sites that charge for there advise. I replaced the 500.00 gearbox, no fix, replaced the power steering pump 200.00 no fix, i replaced the power steering hose 100.00 in the event that the inside plastic liner had become loose and was preventing the fluid from passing no fix, all at the recommendations of the technician which i paid him for his advise although they didnt fix the problem he was quite knowledgable and i was happy with his help besides all of those things had over 150,000 miles on them, he gave me an eduaction on the power steering system and how it works which was worth the cost. Now totally frustrated with the dangerous problem I tore the whole front end apart brakes, rotors, hubs and pulled the front axles and low a behold there was the problem. the front axle u joints at the wheels. you see when you install the manual lock outs the axles dont turn anymore unless you activate the hubs manually, the u joint turned easy one direction when you turned them by hand and where locked up the other direction and since i never used the 4 wheel drive since i installed the manual locking hubs they never really got used and rusted inside. anyway problem fixed and turning good now with the addition of new u-joints that i was hoping i wouldnt have to change due to the new style manual hubs oh well i guess i just need to use the four wheel drive once in a while to keep them in good shape.

 

Im planning on installing locking hubs on my truck. I dont use 4wd too often so this is good to know. Thanks.