destroyed hub- bought new "locking" spindle nuts

[77 K20]

Never heard this was possible on the highway. While I was out of state there were some bad rain storms with wind. The wife was driving my truck, she got home and said the whole wheel was smoking.

Pretty much everything that used to be my Yukon locking hub is now a pile of shavings. !/2 the spring in it is missing, snap ring for the axle shaft was popped off and was floating around in there. The 2 "locking cog" pieces are ground down. Had to pry it off of the axle shaft and eventually it jammed. I had to use a very small gear puller to remove it.

Looks like the spindle nut backed off a bit. The little pin on that locking washer is gone.

I ordered all the bearings and seals- but now looks like I need to order a new spindle also. The spindle nut threads are hashed.

Part of what I ordered was a "x lock" locking spindle nut. Everyone ever use one? This truck has always had a history of the spindle nuts getting a bit loose.

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But now that I've bought them some say they are incompatible with the Yukon hubs. No reason was given on why it would cause issues.

On to the next issue- those hubs are expensive. I'm not sure if they sell replacement pieces. And if they did- then I'd be mad if these 2 parts don't work together.

In the meantime I checked my garage and I do still have the original parts from when it was a full time 4. The little chrome caps and the "slug?" that permanently locks the hub.

Maybe this is the safe route to go? With no moving parts and the spindle nut locked down I shouldn't ever have issues (hahahahaa!).

The truck is pretty much only for off road and forest service roads up to lookouts, camping spots, and lakes. Maximum highway distance is usually no more than 60 miles and I typically only do 60 mph.

 

[77 K20]

I did just read that Yukon has a limited lifetime warranty on their hubs:

A "no questions" asked policy on the first warranty return.

Still not quite sure what happened. And I'd hate to think if that would have happened if I was back in the middle of nowhere.

 

[77 K20]

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This is what greeted me when I removed the outer cap. And the smell of burnt grease.

 

[Frankenchevy]

Dang, that’s too bad. I thought about getting the Yukon hubs, but I nearly daily drive my truck. I guess I’ll look a stock type warn.

 

[Nonstop]

I think your best answer would be to call the manufacturers of both to find out if the hubs will fit! If it were me, I would try the new nuts, and get the new hubs under warranty. The slugs are small enough to be tossed behind the seat or even in the glove box!

 

[Arkansas_V8]

I have seen that on the trail, more in the rocks. Not really ever on a daily just cruising, or just logging roads.

Sorry for that man.

 

[4WDKC]

I think your best answer would be to call the manufacturers of both to find out if the hubs will fit! If it were me, I would try the new nuts, and get the new hubs under warranty. The slugs are small enough to be tossed behind the seat or even in the glove box!

That is what I did with mine, it should also be noted there are 2 different spindles and the bearings do not swap but the slugs/hubs lock nuts do.

 

[77 K20]

I think your best answer would be to call the manufacturers of both to find out if the hubs will fit! If it were me, I would try the new nuts, and get the new hubs under warranty. The slugs are small enough to be tossed behind the seat or even in the glove box!

I emailed Stage 8 who makes the spindle lock nuts and hopefully they will write back.

I'm still trying to get my hands on a equipment trailer so I can haul my truck to a mechanic friends shop with a lift and then we can tear apart the truck and really look to see what happened.

I'll put it together with the full time 4 slug to get it home and then contact Yukon about a warranty replacement after examining the truck more.

 

[77 K20]

That is what I did with mine, it should also be noted there are 2 different spindles and the bearings do not swap but the slugs/hubs lock nuts do.

2 different spindles? Are you talking about the older big bearing hubs that GM had?

The spindle I was thinking about buying says it has 2.0" and 1.625" bearing journals. Thought this was the only one?

 

[4WDKC]

2 different spindles? Are you talking about the older big bearing hubs that GM had?

The spindle I was thinking about buying says it has 2.0" and 1.625" bearing journals. Thought this was the only one?

I dont know what it is, I parted an axle that was broken and tried to reuse them on a good axle I was building but couldnt find new bearings for it. I gave up and used a different one and the same bearings fit fine, so I tossed the spindle into a parts box. When I sold the truck I sent the parts box with it.

 

[77 K20]

I sent an email to Stage 8 who makes those locking spindle nuts. Some lady got back to me within 5 minutes saying their tech left for the day but he will contact me the following day. And he did:

Hello Mike,

Unfortunately NO the Stage 8 X-Lock will not work with the Yukon hubs.
And yes is because the big spring interferes with the Notched Washer
in the X-Lock Assembly. sorry.


So no big deal I guess. I'll just put my full time 4 slugs back in after rebuilding it. Sure- I lose some mpg, but this truck is for local trail rides and camping.

 

[rpcraft]

Without reading a lot of the additional posts I'll just submit for your thought, I doubt it was the hub failure that caused the issue but rather the locking nut probably lost it's pin. I've had three different 10 bolt axles over the years that I have found the hub nut's faulty on (meaning they were in a stage of some kind of failure. The last one I came across was due to being over tightened it seems but in each case I have found the dowel pin on the inner nut missing and then once that happens the washer spins and it's all just downhill from there. Not sure what causes the pin to break off the inner nut but if I had to venture a guess I would imagine it's probably just metal fatigue.

 

[metal tech]

I'm sorry you are having to deal with the damage and repair, but thanks for posting this. I use the Stage 8 spindle locks on 2 diff trucks and was thinking of changing to the Yukon hubs.