68 manual locking hubs

[1968k10blue]

I have a 68 k10 with the locking hubs. either one or both don't work and I was wondering if anyone here knew if there was a way to get a part or something to turn it into an all time live axle. I am too cheap to buy a new pair of manuals and I hear it doesn't improve gas mileage all that much to turn them off. so I was wondering if I could buy a part which just locks them and you cant unlock them. otherwise if anyone could direct me to cheap ones or tell me how to work on them that would be great too.

[Jmageee902004]

I recently pulled apart my hubs on my 64 k10 they may be a little different being internal bolts. But once you get them off and look at them and see how they work it's actually quite simple. I thought mine were shot until I pulled them off and saw it was just twisted up. I reset them and regreased them. If your going to go the cheap route like me at least pull them off and see exactly why they don't work may be an easier fix then you thought.
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[1968k10blue]

okay, but I have another question you may know. I read that there are some locking hubs that if you put the vehicle in reverse while they are engaged and the transfer case is in 4wd that they will automatically unlock. do you know if this was the way they were in that era? because I have a steep gravel driveway so I thought I would try to spin both tires to see if the 4wd worked(it is a new truck to me) and when I found out it didn't work I backed down the driveway and I heard a clicking and the truck was jerking backwards. I recently found out that this was once a feature and I never checked to see if either one was disengaged, so do you have an answer to this?

[1968k10blue]

actually I foundthe page that said that and it says they will lock by going into 4wd in reverse not unlock when you reverse

[Jmageee902004]

Unfortunately I don't know about that. I know sometimes you have to put the truck in reverse to let off pressure to unlock the hubs which is actually a problem I'm having now with my truck. Not sure of the forum rules on sending people to other sites but You can try pirate4x4.com those guys really know thier stuff when it comes to 4x4s. More of an extreme mod 4x4 site then stock but they may have a little more insight. Or I'm sure someone with just as much insight about the hubs will chime in soon quite a few people here know way more then I do. I notice your in Motomedi I'm from Burnsville, small world I guess.
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[argonaut]

you can usually find solid slugs to install in place of the manual locks. It is basically just a disk with female spines on the inside to match the axle stub and make splines on the outside to match the hub. Then you pop on a cover. I used to have a set of these, but don't know where I put them. They are common on the 73-77? k10s that came with the full-time 4wd np203 transfer cases.

I don't know of a manual hub that engages by going backwards in 4wd. If you look at how the mechanism works, this just isn't possible.

WHile having the front engaged all the time won't break anything, it will wear you front axle u-joints, gearsets and bearings faster, and will drop your mileage a bit. I bought solid flanges for my large hub Dana 44 but haven't put them on for these reasons. If you rebuild the stock lockouts they'll work just fine for years and years.

[1968k10blue]

Do you know where I may be able to buy the solid slugs then? I would just resort to those until I get the money to buy some warn manuals
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