New Owner Intro and a couple of Q's.... (1 Viewer)

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So I've been on this forum for several years and don't make a whole lot of posts. I have a 2000 4R and just bought "bullitsmith's" '91 HZJ77. I love it and she's a peach! Mike took great care of her and it shows! So this is the first Yota with the "auto hubs" that DON'T use an axle disconnect. Today we had some wet snow in central-VA and I had to go "rescue" my wife who was in my 4R - she was stuck at the bottom of a road and hadn't put it in 4wd. I put in 4H and she walked right up the hill on a set of older BFG MT's. I started following her up and stalled on the same hill spinning. As god as my witness a Jeep behind me passed and walked right up! I went a different way and made it home only to find I couldn't get up the small hill to my house. So - after the plow went by I finally got her up. I coaxed her on a lot we own and put her on a VERY slight incline. In 4H I got her to start spinning, set the hand throttle, got out and watched the front DS turn but NO wheel spinning in front. I put it in 2wd and she spun just a bit but walked up! NOW - when I do this little experiment, I can actually BARELY increase the hand throttle while standing outside of the truck and she'll start moving in 4wd. You can see the front starting to climb ever-so-slowly. I can't believe the BFG All Terrains are THAT bad! 2wd cars with street tires were going up a slushy hill the 77 couldn't.

I'm thinking someone needs to school me on the auto hubs as I don't think they are engaging and staying engaged. (Or they don't engage at all.) I guess they're electric and turn a "coupling" or sleeve. Does this happen a lot? To engage: Truck is in D or N, press the HUB LOCK button then 4WD button, hub lock and 4wd lights come on in dash and away I go in.....?

Thanks for any help I can get!
 
Pictures?

My auto hubs were replaced with manual hubs. Seems the autos are not very good or don't last

Are you sure your hubs are not manual?

Sorry for the silly question.
 
Yeah - they are auto.

I’d love to know from someone with these on-the-dash “push button” hubs if they are prone to failure.
 
The auto (electric hubs) have a tendency to work flawlessly right up to the point where you actually need them.
You'll do yourself a favor by converting to manual hubs.
 
My electronic hubs stopped working last winter. I had the hubs apart recently and the right side is fine, but the brushes on the left side are gone. I actually like being able to engage my hubs from the comfort of the driver's seat. If I could find a supplier for new brushes, I'd fix what I have rather than pay big bucks to switch to manuals.
 
Unfortunately that is one of the weakest/poorly designed components on the truck. Don't even bother trying to fix it, convert to manual hubs, the best option is to replace the hubs, spindle and all related components to the toyota manual hubs system. It is somewhat labor intensive but not hard, if you need to rebuild the knuckles anyway this will be a good time to do it. Contact cruiser outfitters he has all the parts needed. The conversion kit you are talking about is a quick and dirty approach that I personally would not go with.
 
Odd Iron Off Road canabilized one of the small motors (the same small motor that you depend on to get you home) to see what the internal components looked like. They drive gears (again, the ones you depend on) were better suited for a Timex watch than a Land Cruiser 4WD system.
 
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Unfortunately that is one of the weakest/poorly designed components on the truck. Don't even bother trying to fix it, convert to manual hubs, the best option is to replace the hubs, spindle and all related components to the toyota manual hubs system. It is somewhat labor intensive but not hard, if you need to rebuild the knuckles anyway this will be a good time to do it. Contact cruiser outfitters he has all the parts needed. The conversion kit you are talking about is a quick and dirty approach that I personally would not go with.

We do stock all of the needed parts to fully (and strongly) convert to manual hubs including a variety of part such as OE, Japanese, aftermarket options on the spindles, wheel hubs and of course many many options on the hubs. Different colors and HD and standard. You can also source many of the parts from a donor axle. Perhaps I should kick off a thread on which parts you need and where to get them as this is becoming a very popular parts call for us.

Fwiw I have the manual hubs on my HZJ77, I intend to keep them right up until the point where I start building it for actual off-road use :D
 

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