This patent may be exciting for some Jeep owners

[ShadowsPapa]

I worked at a Jeep/Pontiac/Renault dealership in my High school days. I remember the time we did a parts inventory purge. I was shocked at all the stuff we were told to chuck. Things that were sitting unsold for years on the shelves. The craziest thing I saw was manual Warn locking hubs BNIB in the trash . I'm talking complete assemblies.
Couldn't believe it.

Guess where some of that stuff ended up.............. in my shop and in my SX4
Back then a lot of guys went around AMC dealerships and went dumpster diving, or told the parts people they'd buy all of the stock they were supposed to trash.
I've bought some of those parts - one guy lost his warehouse where he has his parts stash stored and I bought every AMC Group3 charging system part and Motorola part he had, including new in the box alternators.

I have a NOS left and right quarter panel for my Sx4, a NOS right fender for my Javelin, a NOS grill for a 70 Javelin, and my SX4 has dozens of parts salvaged from old dealerships.

Anyway, I had a 95 F250 4x4 with automatic hubs. I was out of town for some training when an ice storm hit, followed by snow. The truck was in the driveway in front of my wife's car which was in the garage. She needed to get to town - I explained about the transfer case, etc. Well, that truck decided that was the day to blow one of those automatic hubs - in our driveway. She was HOT, oh, man!
I got home and ordered manual hubs for it - they weren't quite right, went back to Ford and found out my truck had some optional heavy duty hubs on the front and had to order the larger Warn locking hubs. Never looked back. Those automatic hubs sucked.
I figured if the weather was iffy - just lock the danged hubs and be done with it.

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[King Nothing]

I remember having to get out to lock the front hubs before shifting into 4HI. Doesn't seem that long ago, but I guess it was decades! LOL!

My hubs were always locked. Never know when you’ll be driving down the road and stumble across a mud hole.

 

[BourbonRunner]

I figured if the weather was iffy - just lock the danged hubs and be done with it.

This.

When I switched them out it gave me a good opportunity to update a few small things that were wearing out. You know, a CV boot or two, wheel bearings, brakes, lines...

Your collection of parts is wild. Did you offload a lot for cars other than yours?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

This.

When I switched them out it gave me a good opportunity to update a few small things that were wearing out. You know, a CV boot or two, wheel bearings, brakes, lines...

Your collection of parts is wild. Did you offload a lot for cars other than yours?

I've restored hundreds of starters, alternators and Prestolite wiper motors, among other things.
The lot I bought from the guy in FL who lost his warehouse I've been using over the last decade or two for alternator restoration.
Several big boxes came via UPS back then.
I think it included something like 200 brush sets for alternators, stators and rotors.
Then in Kenosha, I bought several boxes of new parts that came from the old AMC factory there. There were dozens of front bearings for alternators (several hundred dollars worth) new alternator front frames, and parts to convert the 1969 alternators to the new 1970 wiring harness.
I found that they had all of those front bearings and front frames because when assembling the alternator to the engine, every once in a while they'd strip the threads in the adjuster bolt hole and have to pull the alternator and replace the front frame.
Me - I just take those and helicoil them!

That's only part of the parts I have..........

For my SX4, I watch swap meets and have landed a rare pair of NOS tail lights correct for the Eagle Sport, NOS headlight bezels, trim parts, gauges and dash parts and other stuff. I also got lucky and got my hands on two pairs of NOS front hub assemblies for Eagles. Those are likely the last ones on earth as for the last few years people have been trying to find hubs, parts, or figuring out how to adapt Jeep front hubs to the Eagle (it can be done)

 

[legacy_etu]

Guess where some of that stuff ended up.............. in my shop and in my SX4
Back then a lot of guys went around AMC dealerships and went dumpster diving, or told the parts people they'd buy all of the stock they were supposed to trash.
I've bought some of those parts - one guy lost his warehouse where he has his parts stash stored and I bought every AMC Group3 charging system part and Motorola part he had, including new in the box alternators.

I have a NOS left and right quarter panel for my Sx4, a NOS right fender for my Javelin, a NOS grill for a 70 Javelin, and my SX4 has dozens of parts salvaged from old dealerships.

Anyway, I had a 95 F250 4x4 with automatic hubs. I was out of town for some training when an ice storm hit, followed by snow. The truck was in the driveway in front of my wife's car which was in the garage. She needed to get to town - I explained about the transfer case, etc. Well, that truck decided that was the day to blow one of those automatic hubs - in our driveway. She was HOT, oh, man!
I got home and ordered manual hubs for it - they weren't quite right, went back to Ford and found out my truck had some optional heavy duty hubs on the front and had to order the larger Warn locking hubs. Never looked back. Those automatic hubs sucked.
I figured if the weather was iffy - just lock the danged hubs and be done with it.

Hey that’s great, better you got the stuff and it get used than thrown in the trash. I was sorely tempted to grab the hubs but this was before the days of Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. I had no idea as a 17 year old where I could market them…..aside from a flea market. And at 17 I had better things to do with my Sunday mornings than sit at a dusty flea market setting up a folding table with car parts. That being said, it might be time for you to start off loading that inventory you still have .

Yup, those old Warn manual hubs were no joke. I mean talk about beefy! Heavy machined steel or brass, I forget. They must’ve weighed 20 lbs apiece. You don’t hardly ever find quality like that anymore. Everything is engineered to be as light/cheap as possible these days.

 

[rubicon4wheeler]

I remember having to get out to lock the front hubs before shifting into 4HI. Doesn't seem that long ago, but I guess it was decades! LOL!

I'd give anything to have Jeep still putting a proper set of unlocking hubs on the front axles.

As for my use of low range, if I'm not planning on exceeding 30mph there's no reason to be in high range. There are many reasons why proper 4x4s are equipped with reduction transfer cases.

 

[Hootbro]

Has Jeep actually release info they are going to actually release this in a upcoming vehicle. The article seems to confuse approved patents with actual release to market and 90% of the time, that is farthest from the truth when it is just to block competitors out from doing anything similar while the patent is still valid.

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