44 wheel hubs keep breaking

[Freeride]

2 trips in a row I've broke wheel hubs. Not the locking hub mechanism, the actual hub as the pictures show below. I fully expect to toast a ton of 44 parts with my 40's, but these are the last things I expect to break. I would have figured locking hub first, then shafts/joints, and eventually maybe a wheel hub....

FYI, my driver's side hub is an old OEM factory Ford hub, the 2 I've broken were both on the passenger's side and were Schmucks hubs. I'm thinking they're cheap import china-cast junk.

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[Bunk1]

Bent housing?

 

[NotMatt]

Nicely done. :clappy: Anyway... what kind of shafts and lockouts are you running? Looks like stock ford? Pretty wild to see that part break before anything else, especially if it's a stock lockout.

Bent housing?

That's what I was thinking 1st thing on seeing that pic too... but that's just my standard "weird breakage" answer. I'm trying to mentally picture how a bent housing would put that kind of stress on that area... seems like it would have to be REALLY bent to do that... I dunno, anything's possible.

I'm inclined to think maybe your theory on the cheap parts being part of the issue... did you buy both hubs at the same store? Maybe they had a bad batch of 'em or something?

 

[Kelly]

I'll put up a blind vote for bad casting.

 

[Paulie]

there schmucks that why, Buy some from olympic. i would try getting some OEM ford 44 wheel hubs. if that doesnt work sell that turd and get a 60.

 

[crash2]

eITHER you have a bad casting issue or the spindle is bent...

 

[Freeride]

Nicely done. :clappy: Anyway... what kind of shafts and lockouts are you running? Looks like stock ford? Pretty wild to see that part break before anything else, especially if it's a stock lockout.

I'm inclined to think maybe your theory on the cheap parts being part of the issue... did you buy both hubs at the same store? Maybe they had a bad batch of 'em or something?

Superwinch lockouts, stock shafts - both of those should break before the hub. Both broken hubs were bought at the same time at the same store.

I'm going to replace it with a factory Ford if I can find one.

This last time we caught it on video shooting parts at mach 5 into the woods. Pretty cool to watch in slo-mo.

And I would love a front 60, but I added up the cost and I figured I would be into it close to $4K. I'm satisfied with the strength of the 44 other than this hub issue. I've pushed it pretty hard on 3 trips now with no shaft/joint or lockout breakage, and those are all stock parts. I can upgrade to alloys/long joints for ~$800.

 

[Freeride]

eITHER you have a bad casting issue or the spindle is bent...

I agree about the spindle too. I'll pull the spindle off and put it in the lathe to see if it's bent. I have a spare one that I can compare it to and use as a replacement.

 

[Roccrawler]

warn makes a aftermarket hub that is stronger than the stock ones

 

[CrustyJeep]

eITHER you have a bad casting issue or the spindle is bent...

With a bent spindle you'd think you would get uneven (VERY OBVIOUS) preload when trying to set the bearings... But who knows?

 

[crash2]

With a bent spindle you'd think you would get uneven (VERY OBVIOUS) preload when trying to set the bearings... But who knows?

You would think so but thats assuming it was bent between the bearing location...

 

[Freeride]

I'm really leaning towards the shitty casting theory. The front end went together smooth as butter. Wheels and bearings spin nice and smooth. I spun the diff with just the shaft sticking through the spindle and it didn't seem like anything was bent.

Just talked to a machinist friend, and I think I know what we're going to do. I'm going to get some factory Ford hubs, and we're going to make steel rings for both sides that will slide over the hubs and keep them from expanding. Make 'em nice and tight, so that we heat them up, slide them on and when they cool, they'll clamp nice and tight around the hub to keep it from expanding and blowing up.

Stay tuned.

 

[CrustyJeep]

Just talked to a machinist friend, and I think I know what we're going to do. I'm going to get some factory Ford hubs, and we're going to make steel rings for both sides that will slide over the hubs and keep them from expanding. Make 'em nice and tight, so that we heat them up, slide them on and when they cool, they'll clamp nice and tight around the hub to keep it from expanding and blowing up.

I've never heard of this failure before, and both your failures were with Schmucks aftermarket stuff. I see NO reason to spend any time or money beyond getting good factory hubs. Just my .02 :redneck:

 

[Freeride]

I've never heard of this failure before, and both your failures were with Schmucks aftermarket stuff. I see NO reason to spend any time or money beyond getting good factory hubs. Just my .02 :redneck:

I agree 100%, however once I mentioned the problem/idea to my machinist friend he is super pumped to do this project, lol. I don't think I can stop him. He REALLY wants to help me fix this, and I appreciate his help even though I think this will be overkill with the Ford hubs.

 

[Freeride]

Also, as a side benefit, we could make the rings just the right size to make everything hub-centric. Would make it nice and easy to line those 40's up on the lug studs. :redneck:

 

[CrustyJeep]

Well **** if he's just looking for stuff to do, send him my way

 

[Freeride]

It was funny, I was talking about the problem with him and mentioned I was going to for sure upgrade to a factory hub, and then if I blew one of those up, I'd do the ring method too. He just wants to do both and solve the problem for sure!

Okay by me!