Manual Locking Hubs

[Solitude]

Hello folks,

While looking at some of the mod pictures I have seen some VX's with manual locking hubs..

What is the benefit with these.. does it mess up the TOD?

Guess thats all the questions I have for now.. I am sure others will reveal themselves as time goes by

Thanks
Jeff

[Greasemonkey]

Hi how can you have locking hubs on a car that has no auto lockers - the VX has a drive shaft that turns all the time the 4wd is on all the time it would mean fitting rodeo/trooper front drive shafts and taking a manual hub from the same vehicle - i don't see the point - did you know with a small modification you can convert the TOD to 2wd anyway - mine has 2wd already as its a JDM VX - its great fun and makes the car a lot more economical and faster but you do lose handling at speed i am sure you could convert yours using some info about the JDM TOD system - its the same as the trooper which in the US should come with 2wd as well
cheers
Steve

[kodiak]

It allows me to do parking lot acrobatics and it saves a little gas on long trips. The TOD doesn’t seem to care. I’ve had them on for about 8 months, I pulled mine off an old rodeo.

[nfpgasmask]

Pardon my ignorance, but can someone explain exactly what the advantage to having locking hubs would be? I mean, we are AWD to begin with, and then we have 4L, so what would having locking hubs add in addition to what we already have going for us?

Now, I know a 4WD/2WD toggle switch would help with gas mileage and possibly with wear on our front end components, but is that all we are talking about here?

Bart

[kodiak]

Nope, that’s about it other then its fun to have 2wd sometimes and you get a little more street cred with the off road crowd.

[kodiak]

And if you don’t have hubs you still get wear on the front components.

[JHarris1385]

I am in the same ball park as Bart..... I would like a little more insight on this. So if I installed manual hubs my front IFS would not be powered? Grease what is needed in order to make only the rear driven?

[tom4bren]

Check my logic on this please someone:

1) You are still sending power down through the half shafts but it doesn't reach the ground since your wheels are now free spinning.

2) The gear train for the front drive is designed to operate under load and it MAY not like freewheeling.

3) Since the gear train is still active, you may save some gas but not much.

4) Since the gear train is still active, you may gain some power but not much.

5) No increase in reliability since the drive train is still active (maybe less since 2) may decrease the longevity of the transfer case).

IMHO - not worth it, my front drive train stays functional.

[kodiak]

I am in the same ball park as Bart..... I would like a little more insight on this. So if I installed manual hubs my front IFS would not be powered? Grease what is needed in order to make only the rear driven?

Grease

All the manual hubs do is allow you to ether connect or disconnect the front wheels from the front axel allowing you to do what’s called free wheel the TOD will still sent power to the front axle when it thinks it needs it but it just wont make it to the wheels. Now when you are cruising down the freeway the TOD usually isn’t sending anything to the front wheel so if you have the front hubs in free wheel your not needlessly turning the from axle and wasting gas.

[So-CalVX]

we ship a JDM transfer case over and swap it into one of our VX's... Would that work? Or would we need the tranny, t-case and bellhousing since the jap engine is different. (although I think it's only the heads that are different, correct me if I'm wrong)

If I had the money that would be my conversion. Especially since its a PITA to get a RHD legal in Cali.

[Greasemonkey]

Hi the JDM and the US vehicross are almost identical the difference in the engine is a shorter con rod and a longer crank web to get the 3.2 to a 3.5 the TOD is identical and i recon its just a gear lever gate that stops you selecting 2wd the TOD can be swopped form 2wd to 4wd and back at any speed upto 50 MPH
i would have a good look under the gear gaiter and see if you have the facility i will make a short video of the 2wd this weekend and post a link for you - NB in 2wd the front prop still turns but the drive is disconnected by the electronic clutches in the gearbox - i find it hard to beleive that Isuzu would make 2 different TOD gearboxes the cost just wouldn't be viable
cheers
Steve
PS call me GM for short

[kodiak]

Hi the JDM and the US vehicross are almost identical the difference in the engine is a shorter con rod and a longer crank web to get the 3.2 to a 3.5 the TOD is identical and i recon its just a gear lever gate that stops you selecting 2wd the TOD can be swopped form 2wd to 4wd and back at any speed upto 50 MPH
i would have a good look under the gear gaiter and see if you have the facility i will make a short video of the 2wd this weekend and post a link for you - NB in 2wd the front prop still turns but the drive is disconnected by the electronic clutches in the gearbox - i find it hard to beleive that Isuzu would make 2 different TOD gearboxes the cost just wouldn't be viable
cheers
Steve
PS call me GM for short

That would be freaking cool! Thanks man.

[So-CalVX]

Now that's useful information.
I would be out right now checking under my lever but I left my Bee in TO. I'm driving my grandma's liberty till the 11th. Someone check that out. I'd like to be able to kick into 2WD or 4WD below 50MPH, I'd feel like I'm back in my 4Runner.

Richard

And Grease monkey, thanks. But the last GM I knew fired me for doing 3miles over the speed limit, and there was no police involved. I'll just call u Greasemonkey. Don't wanna get fired again

[Greasemonkey]

Hi no problem i'm a bit of a Vauxhall nut and i am a fitter by trade so the Greasemonkey and GM (General Motors) thing kind of stuck - most of the uk sites have me hanging around helping out with tech stuff - just well chuffed with the VX it has the same engine as both the Isuzu trooper, the Vauxhall montery (trooper) and the vauxhall Frontera (rodeo) so spares are real easy to come by - i just need to get the local Isuzu dealer to make friends with a Jap dealer for the accessories
And the 2wd is pretty scarey round wet sharp corners when you have got used to the TOD being in
cheers
Steve

[bobmumgaard]

Awhile ago we spent alot of time discussing whether lockable hubs are any advantage. It was part of the TOD 2wd selector discussion (mbeach, me and others). The hubs disconnect the wheels from the front halfshafts. True the TOD does keep the whole front spinning, however it can't send torque there. I have lockable hubs and here is why:

1) Better gas mileage. I've monitored this with a scan gauge. On a 40 mile round trip at 70 miles an hour I got 1.4 mpg better with the hubs disengaged as opposed to locked. These runs were back to back on the same day, same conditions on the same highway both directions to combat any wind. I even refueled to keep the weight the same. On my 1900 miles to and from moab this year I averaged 19.8 mpg with the hubs disconnected. (albeit driving like a grandma)

1a) At one point I had the TOD cut off (there is a blue wire, its in the previous discussions) and I seemed to get even better mileage but never tested it. I reconnected it to prevent any damage and I was tired of the check light on the TOD.

2) With the hubs disconnected. The TOD cannot transmit any TORQUE to the wheels. So the reliability is better because nothing is loaded. I am lifted and have had a hell of a time with my CV's. Granted they are still spinning but that is much better than spinning AND transmitting torque. As for whether the front axle freewheeling is a good thing; It can't over spin (ie go faster than the rear), it freewheels some of the time with the TOD anyway, so I've never seen any problem.

3) 2wd is fun. In the snow and rain it is a hoot. Plus it is all you really need most of the time (my opinion, others will differ)

4) Bragging rights for climbing obstacles in 2wd are always better than those in 4wd.

5) If you break a cv on the trail you can ulock the hubs and unbolt the front axle from the TOD and get home. (I've never had to do this, yet, Though I tried it to make sure it works just in case.)

So thats my 2 cents. I have the superwinch hubs and they have held up fine. Though if I had to do it over again I probably would've just pulled some from a trooper.