old style locking hubs

[1976gmc20]

Originally Posted by special-K

The technique I used was let it spin lazily until you feel them engage. Not nail it until you feel them grenade. Same with the Gov-Loc. I never blew one of those either using the same technique. It's the trade-off for the convenience. I never looked at walking up to my front wheels and turning knobs as a hard thing to do anyway. I'm a manual kind of guy

The hubs didn't blow up, they just didn't engage until after I pulled forward and tried to back up again several times. Fortunately we weren't stuck - just trying to do something a little bit difficult. It's not "convenient" when your 4wd doesn't work when you need it.

The last ten years or so we had that Suburban, I almost never unlocked the hubs as the only time we drove it was when the roads were really bad, or else to just go charge the battery and I wanted to lube up the front end anyway.

My 89 K1500 front axles are permanently locked together as it is a "ranch" truck. I'm still waiting to see how the electric/gear actuator holds up on the 2016 long term. It has the manual TC lever but still the "thing" between the front axles. It also has the limited slip rear which I really like but I don't know if it is as vulnerable as the old ones? But I drive like the grandpa that I am

[LONGHAIR]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

The hubs didn't blow up, they just didn't engage until after I pulled forward and tried to back up again several times. Fortunately we weren't stuck - just trying to do something a little bit difficult. It's not "convenient" when your 4wd doesn't work when you need it.



It also has the limited slip rear which I really like but I don't know if it is as vulnerable as the old ones? But I drive like the grandpa that I am

I worked in a 4x4 shop back in the 80s up to '92 and I replaced dozens, if not hundreds at that time. Many of them would either not lock at all, lock only moving forward, or not unlock. I did see a few actually grenaded, but they were on modified trucks with way too big of a tire for them.
The newer trucks still use the same code number (G80) as they did back then, but I don't know if they are the same anymore? They had a bad reputation too. I replaced a ton of them too. Most of them just threw up the little gears/springs of the governor. Not exactly what you want roaming around in your gear lube and it deactivates it as far as usefullness. I have seen them explode badly enough to crack the whole housing.
These were again usually done by people abusing them. Bigger tires or extensive off roading were mostly to blame. Crazy spinning on a concrete boat ramp was the killer of the worst I ever personally took apart.
I hope they are ok now a days because I have one in my 20 Colorado.