I have ordered a set of manual lockout hubs for my 98 Ford Ranger. It has a 4.0L V6.

I have a nasty vacuum leak that I have pinpointed to the lockout hubs. The left lockout is hosed. From what I can tell, I can remove the fitting that's on the hub with a properly sized bolt. Does this sound right?

The next thing I want to do is plug off the vacuum source that's feeding the lockout hubs. I want to plug it off as close to the main vacuum source(s) as possible. Where can I plug it off, and what can I eliminate, if anything, without messing anything else up?

 

There is a little solenoid that triggers the vacuum hubs. It is located near the basalt, which is on the passenger side, behind the wheel well liner...kinda under the headlight...that area. Removing it messes with the 4WD system, so that needs to stay, but from that guy, vacuum hoses go to each hub. I had the diaphragm on that guy fail giving me a vac leak...on the plus side, all my soft vacuum hose is new!

 

I got my hubs, and I have installed them.

I found that solenoid after tracing the vacuum lines from the hubs. Then I determined which of the two vacuum lines was going from the solenoid to the hubs. I disconnected the vacuum line that was going to the hubs, as close to the solenoid as possible, and plugged it off with a bolt. I didn't touch anthing else because I want to make sure the 4WD still works. If the 4WD still works, I'll go ahead and remove the non-functional vacuum hoses from the hubs and plug the hubs off.

I won't be going back to the PVH system, anytime soon.

 

I removed my solenoid after I installed full time hubs in my truck and my 4wd is working just fine. No flashing lights and no problems shifting into 4wd high or low. I just plugged the main vacuum line that went into it and removed all the vacuum lines going to the hubs.

 

I plugged off the vac hose that's going from the solenoid to the hubs. The vac line that's feeding the solenoid has a T fitting that's just ahead of it. Are you saying that I can cut the vac source that's going to the switch and and replace the T fitting with a 90 degree fitting? Since the new fitting would only have two hoses connected to it, could I just run one chunk of vacuum hose from the vac source to whatever the other end is going to?

 

Yeah you could do that, sounds like a lot more work than just plugging it.