Manual hub advice please.

If you leave the manual hubs in the locked position then you can select 4wd in the car without leaving your seat. If you want them unlocked on the road then you will need to get out and lock them when you need 4wd. Leaving them locked all the time reduces performance and increases fuel consumption slightly, as well as putting more wear on the front axle CVs, diff, propshaft UJs etc.

Young Pretender wrote: Am I misunderstanding manually locking hubs?

I had thought that to engage 4wd or revert to 2wd you had to get out of the car every time although reading some of the comments I may have misunderstood.

Can you still move between 4wd and 2wd from inside the car?

You may be misunderstanding - depends.

If you leave the manual setting at the hub on locked then you will not have to exit the vehicle. All you would have to do is engage 4H (or whatever) from inside with the selector lever or whatever (button).
I'll try to give you my way of explaining what goes on to see if you understand better. To get drive to the front wheels two things have to be engaged, the transfer box and the hubs. It is like a daisy chain of events. Currently you engage the box with a lever or maybe a button then the front hubs engage themselves thanks to mechanical wizardry that nearly always seems to go wrong sooner or later. What we do is to eliminate the hub engagement by making it so we do it ourselves. You can even eliminate facility to do it ourselves by fixing the hubs on permanently. So then all you have to do is shift to 4H and you have all wheel drive. Gosh that explanation seems to be more complex than I had hoped. lol

Thanks Busta and Helijohn, makes perfect sense now!

j999pre wrote: The hubs pictured need spacers to fit a Jimny.

I have a pair of the type Riccy mentioned for sale brand new.

Vacuum leak can also be a bad wheel bearing.

Ah. I noticed a bit of play on my near side bearing. That could be the culprit then. I have the tool to replace it. Might do that first then. Great info thanks.

I realise how the difference in the older locking hubs. I read the wiki but I forgot it mention the use of spacers or cut/grind the sealing lip off. Brill.


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Aside from being dangerous, any play in the wheel bearings will break the seal needed for the vacuum system to work through the hub. Sort the wheel bearing and your 4wd system should hopefully be fixed!

That’s the plan. Looking for a bearing now. I hadn’t linked the 2. I was treating them as 2 separate issues.

Martin if you are reading this any chance of a price and timescale for the big Jimny shop getting a front wheel bearing? It’s showing out of stock at the moment. Thanks.

I get the feeling that a lot of people do the same and switch to manual hubs when the system is in fact working to the best of its abilities. Another nail in the coffin for the 'unreliable' vacuum system!
I'm only aware of the bearing issue as I bought a very cheap Jimny with no brakes or 4wd and after much replacing of parts and head scratching learnt that both were caused by a failed wheel bearing!

NineCherries wrote: That’s the plan. Looking for a bearing now. I hadn’t linked the 2. I was treating them as 2 separate issues.

Martin if you are reading this any chance of a price and timescale for the big Jimny shop getting a front wheel bearing? It’s showing out of stock at the moment. Thanks.

The play could be mistaken for kingpin wear.

helijohn wrote:

NineCherries wrote: That’s the plan. Looking for a bearing now. I hadn’t linked the 2. I was treating them as 2 separate issues.

Martin if you are reading this any chance of a price and timescale for the big Jimny shop getting a front wheel bearing? It’s showing out of stock at the moment. Thanks.

The play could be mistaken for kingpin wear.

Hopefully not. I replaced the kingpin bearings last nov. With ones from the big Jimny shop. but I’ll check again.

Much appreciated though


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NineCherries wrote:
Hopefully not. I replaced the kingpin bearings last nov. With ones from the big Jimny shop. but I’ll check again.

Much appreciated though


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I am sure yours will be fine. It was more of a general comment especially as kingpin wear is so common.

helijohn wrote:

NineCherries wrote:
Hopefully not. I replaced the kingpin bearings last nov. With ones from the big Jimny shop. but I’ll check again.

Much appreciated though


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I am sure yours will be fine. It was more of a general comment especially as kingpin wear is so common.

Just a quick update. My issue was solved with the replacement of a worn wheel bearing. On inspection today the off side now has a little bit of play and guess what. 4wd has stopped working again never mind as I wasn’t a difficult job to do. Thought I’d update this post as it was the first I’d head about the wheel bearing being a potential source of the 4wd failure. Thanks again guys for your help.


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