i am considering and researching needed replacement parts for safely and fully removing the front differential, hallf shafts, and drive shaft; and making my 2007 ranger rear wheel drive from original four wheel drive.

it seems to me that if i remove the steering knuckle


from the control arm assemblies.



and then replace that with this knuckle



will all that, plus related parts below for that second attachment,


make it so i can safely drive without having the front differential installed???

 

Honestly, the easiest method to delete the front drive system is to remove all the components you mentioned, leave the 4wd hubs in place, and use the truck like that.

To do this, you will need to take the old front CV shafts apart, keeping the outer cups. Reinstall them into the wheel bearing like you would if you were merely replacing the axle. No need to tear the entire hub assembly apart.

 

Thank you tourismolover22. i was actually gonna try what you said there, but it seems that after reinstalling the wheels to the hub and putting the shaft spindle through the hub and attaching its nut to torque; i am afraid that there isnt really anything to stop the hub and spindle from coming through the hole in the knuckle. yes, the hub has its three bolts holding it to the knuckle. but i am afraid of a recent problem repeating itself.....

you see, i had removed everything already. including the whole front differential assembly and its two half shafts. then i reinstalled the hubs and wheels, all to torque specification. then i took it for a short test drive. well, minutes later, the front left wheel broke off and was rolling across the street, including the left brake caliper. the left wheel-less knuckle was grinding to a stop, and i was able to come safely to a stop. i found that the left hub broke in two, and the right wheel was almost broke off the same way. though the right side brake caliper remained in one piece.

tourismolove22, have you or anyone else you know did it how you explained here, and not had a similar incident of both wheels breaking off, splitting the hub in two??

both hubs were in very good condition and the truck is very well mantained.

 

To be honest, what it sounds like happened is the axle nut wasn't properly torqued, or there was debris between the CV shaft and the hub.

The bearings are held in the bearing assembly by two things, the spindle, and the CV shaft end. When you torque the CV to spec, the spindle holds the outer bearing in place, and the CV holds the inner bearing. When torqued, they sandwich the bearing so it cannot come out. If the entire wheel came off with the spindle still attached, then the CV nut was either not tightened to spec, or the retaining ring/castle nut/cotter pin was not reinstalled.

Short of the wheel bearing bolts coming out, there wouldn't be a way for the spindle to escape as you described, because the CV end is far too large to come out through the bearing assembly carrier.

 

well maybe youre misunderstanding me. i completely removed the front differential, including front drive shaft, and the left and right half shafts. i then reattached the wheel hubs. rotors, brake calipers and wheels. setting all bolts and nuts to proper torque specification. during this reinstallation, i didnt modify and reinstalll . the half shafts. so the holes in the hub for the outside ends of the half shafts was completely open.

a few minutes later during a test drive was when the hubs broke and wheels began to break off.

my particular vehicle, from factory didnt have a knuckle with a spindle. it had a hub to attach the rotor and wheel to. but per this recent event, i am considering changing to a knuckle with a spindle and going with a different rotor. --per my initial question in this post

but even following your suggestoin of disassembling the half shaft and put the outside ends into the hubs, i dont see how the end of the shaft and its attaching nut are going to hold that hub from breaking somehow off the knuckle. during the test drive, they didnt come off the knuckle, they just broke in two pieces allowing the wheel to literally roll away from the vehicle leaving the lower control arm to grind on the road to an eventual stop.

i would hate to disassemble the halfshafts, buy new hubs and put everything back together with proper torques and things break again.

 

The way you previously did it was incorrect, and that is why your hub bearing assemblies separated. There was nothing holding them together, so they came apart. If you had the disassembled half-shaft installed, this would not have happened since the ends of the halfshafts would be holding the hubs together. The inside end of the halfshaft is large enough that it will not go through the small hole in the hub. There are thousands of lifted trucks with independent front axles that are running with disassembled half-shafts with no ill-effects.

For what it's worth, I am running the type of spindle you originally inquired about switching to, and I had my wheel come off because the spindle snout broke clean off. You are more likely to lose your wheel with the style you want to switch to, then you are with your current setup and disassembled half-shafts.

 

If you had installed the outer ends of the CV into the hubs, they would not of broken.

So, on a 2WD/non driven spindle and hub, the bearing is assembled roughly like below. The spindle is fixed. The inner bearing is installed, then the wheel hub, then the outer bearing. Then a washer and nut is used to hold the assembly together. The hub floats on the bearings, which is held together by the nut at the end, which retains the assembly onto the spindle. These types of bearing systems almost always use conical bearings, and naturally center themselves when torqued to the proper spec.


With a bolt-in bearing assembly, the CV axle end holds the bearing together. This is why torque values on CV axle ends are important. Below is a photo of a typical bolt-in bearing design

From left, to right, components are as follows
Wheel Hub
seal
outer bearing
Bearing housing
inner bearing
inner bearing race
seal

When these are assembled, the wheel hub is pressed into the bearing assembly. The two outer portions of the bearing races that the wheel bearings ride upon are "press fit" to the hub. This keeps the assembly together for packaging and ease of installation. While the system is pressed together, it is a very light press fit. And there is nothing to retain the bearings in the hub other than the friction between the bearing races and the wheel hub. When the axle is passed through the bearing assembly, and through the hub, the face of that axle (where the CV cup of the axle meets the splined and threaded portion of the axle end) acts as a retainer for the "inner" bearing and race. The Hub acts as a retainer for the "outer" bearing. When you add the axle nut to the end of the CV shaft, it acts as the spindle of a 2WD/non-driven wheel hub assembly. The only difference is the axle will rotate with the wheel/hub, vs a spindle, which is stationary.

In this cutaway, shown above, the splined area is where your axle would go through. As you note, there is not really anything behind the rear bearing race to hold it in place. This is where the axle comes in. When it passes through the hub, and is then torqued down, the axle and hub sandwich the bearings and bearing races in place so they do not fall apart. The "bolt in" part of these bearing systems is meant only as a time saving device, as it is much easier to service bolt-in bearings while the spindle assembly is still on the car vs a press-in bearing. The hub must be knocked out, and the old bearing must be pressed out of the spindle, and then a new one pressed in, to service those. They are also often captured from the back by a snap ring or other retaining device, though this only holds the bearing shell to the spindle, and not the bearing together. The axles still hold the bearings together in press-in wheel bearing systems, but the assembly process is slightly different.

If you were to take a new set of 4WD bearing assemblies, and install them in your truck, and then install the axle end ONLY (torqued to spec, of course) the hub won't know the difference. You can treat it just the same as if you kept all of the 4WD components installed, just minus the rest of the parts, it should not act any different. This is a common mod used by people who install FWD spindles onto RWD cars, or convert their FWD car to RWD. It is often impossible to find any sort of "off the shelf" solution for those kinds of builds, so they just reuse what came on the car with minor tweaks.

I hope this was of help, if you need anything else further explained, just ask.

 

okay, i understand better now turismolover22.

i have finally removed the outside pieces of the left and right half shaft. the opening in the knuckle for the end of the halfshaft to pass through to the hub, is slightly wide enough for the piece to fit through entirely. when fully assembled to the differential, even with the boots and straps fastened, it is still possible to pull the half shaft through the opening of the knuckle. but it does take some careful wiggling. and there is a chance the boot gets mildly stuck in the process with chance of getting a tiny tear created in the rubber.

all i need now is to get replacement hubs, left wheel caliper and hose, and remove the air from the brake lines. then i can reinstall all this stuff.

 

thank you fordzilla80 for your input here. i am understanding better the process explained. in the 2007 ranger that i have, the knuckles hole for the halfshaft to pass through in factory installation, is large enough for the whole piece to come through entirely. it takes a little bit of careful wiggling, to keep from causing a tiny tear in the boot. but it technically is big enough for it to come through. --at least in the 2007 model. but, thank you.

 

Maybe I am missing something

If you ran 2WD spindle with no axle nut the wheel would fall off
If you ran 4WD with no axle nut the wheel would fall off

So my understanding is, if there is no axle nut then wheel will fall off

 

well ron. truck is four wheel drive but i generally drive in two wheel mode. i neglected to attach the half shaft axle to the wheel hub. during a short test drive, since there was no axle, the hub split apart letting the wheel roll away.

 

here is my modified half shaft outside ends.


did i do it correctly, and can they be used for proper driving per my desired modification??

 

You are technically correct; however, this would only be an issue if you did not have a bearing assembly installed in the knuckle. With the bearing assembly installed, the half shaft has nowhere to go. Even if the bearing assembly were to come apart, the part that is attached (bolted) to the steering knuckle will stay attached to the steering knuckle and prevent the half shaft from coming out.

 

okay, thank you fordzilla80. tho, i suppose if i didnt have the bearing assembly installed, there would be no place to install the wheel. and there in, the half shaft has nothing to connect to. the vehicle would go nowhere as it rests on the lower control arms in the driveway/shop

 

Exactly.

Your modified half shafts look exactly like they need to look and will work perfect the way they are as long as you properly torque them down.

 

If you can attach and tighten either axle nut on 2WD or 4WD............wheel will stay on

2WD seen here: https://www.explorerforum.com/forums...19-jpg.275687/

4WD seen here: https://www.ranger-forums.com/attach...-4x4-008-5.jpg

 

Okay, thank you RonD. i will do that after i buy new hubs

 

i may have mentioned this but i cant remember. when the front left wheel hub broke in two, the wheel went rolling across the street; and there in causing the lower left control arms nut and pin to grind on the road as i struggled to come safely to a stop. --without brakes mind you, from a broken left caliper line.

here is the aftermath of that grinding damage

as you can see, near top left of image, is the remainder of the bottom of the ball joint, and the ground off castellated nut and cotter pin.

the bottom of this control arm where the nut and pin would be is completely flat. SO, i am wondering, until i am able to replace this ball joint, nut and pin; is there anything really holding that ball joint bolt in there, or would it pop loose with the first bump i hit? like a speed hump, driveway curb ramp, railroad crossing.

then, what would it take to get the knuckle and arm apart there?? i know id hafta remove the bolt holding the tie rod. but im also wondering, other than putting some support underneath the control arm; would the pressure of the torsion bar have any affects?? at present, i have the torsion set at its maximum height. i dont wanna remove the contol arm, but simply replace the ball joint holding it to the knuckle. i know at the top of that ball joint, is a ring clip.

what can i do??

 

So, tell me.... when i attach the new hub to the knuckle, bolts at proper torque setting. then attach the brake disc and wheel to the hub with wheel nuts at their torque setting. then after lowering the truck, and installing the modified half shaft into the wheel hub and making the nut tight to proper torque; just to confirm, will everything stay together nice and tight during a test drive???

 

Yes, that should work.
What you'd have is a standard "4WD" setup, you're merely deleting everything from the axle shaft on in. So long as it is all torqued to spec, there should not be any issues with it.

 

I would install the halfshaft BEFORE lowering the truck to the ground. I wouldn't want to risk putting weight on the bearing without the halfshaft installed. I'm not saying that it would cause an issue, but it would prevent an issue if an issue was present. I would feel better on my own truck knowing the half shaft was keeping the bearing halves together under the weight of the truck.

But if you torque everything back to spec, you should have a trouble-free test drive.

As for the ball joint question, I can't really make out what I'm looking at to fully understand that situation, so I can't help much there.

 

Yes, as long as the axle nut is torqued down it will hold the bearings tight

On this version, live axle, the axle shaft shoulder clamps against the back of the hub assembly, the nut pulls it and the outside of hub tight, axle and hub both turn at the same RPM

With a spindle OR manual hub 4x4, the nut has less torque, the old tighten and then turn back 1/8turn, lol, because the nut still needs to hold the bearings compressed to their races but not too tight so they bind up
The spindle or axle(unlocked) don't spin at hub RPMs

 

well, per videos i have watched, replacing a wheel hub, they already state to put the hub on the half shaft and putting the nut on the spline part. then attaching the wheel and its nuts. and finally dropping the truck. after dropped, hub and axle nuts are then set to proper torque.

per that ball joint, image, that is the underneath side of the lower control arm, where the nut and pin to be ground to nothing

in the middle of the red circle is where i believe what remains of the ball joint bolt


the image again is the bottom side of the lower control arm. the red circle is showing the remainder of the ball joint bolt after its nut and pin were ground to nothing.

 

ahh, gotcha ron, thank you.

 

If you are suggesting that the part "above" the blue boot on the ball joint is gone, you will need a new ball joint. There will be nothing to mount the spindle/hub to on the bottom side.