converting to manual hubs (My experience with Wab Fab....the Wabbit will fab it)

[JFratzke]

I am converting my auto locking hubs on my 87 LE to manuals because the autos are failing and locking up randomly. I jumped on here first and re-read all of posts about doing this job.

It's my fault-I'll say that from the get go....I didn't shop around for price which is unlike me. I just blindly followed information I had read from others on here about where to obtain the conversion kit to go from auto hubs to manual. In a hurry to get this done before my summer ends, I got on to Wab Fab's site and ordered the kit. $35 seemed like a lot for a few washers nuts but whatever--accustom to paying more for old parts. But $18.92 for shipping? That seemed like a lot. Again, I was in a hurry, figured it would be fast shipping, and pulled the trigger. $53.92 total. Ordered on 8/8. Got an intial "we got your order" email from Wabfab immediately. Then nothing. On 8/13 I sent them an email and got one back saying my order was being processed. Heard nothing back until the order arrived on 8/18.

This is where it gets good. All the stuff in the box is from www.Trail-Gear.com, billed to WabFab and shipped to me. So I jumped on their site to see how bad I got ripped off. The kit for each hub plus the 54mm socket you get to turn the nut total $26.25 from www.Trail-Gear.com. I can only imagine shipping from California would have been in the $6 range, tops.

So I paid $21.67 too much. It wasn't a lot of money but it was a swindle nonetheless. Order direct from www.Trail-Gear.com. You need 2 of part#(140424-1) and 1(140157-1).

If this information is already on here somewhere I am really gonna feel dumb.....

[JFratzke]

Geez, a simple Google search told me all I needed to know about WabFab. Now I really feel dumb.

[timsrv]

Thanks for the information! It must not have been that way when I ordered from them years ago. I typically remember stuff like that & I'm pretty sure it didn't happen to me. I'll update the threads on this forum & link them to this thread. Thank you for sharing! Tim

[timsrv]

Okay, all of my posts I could find regarding Wabfab have been updated to say this:

UPDATE 8/24/14: Before ordering from WabFab check THIS POST

Thanks again for sharing. Tim

[JFratzke]

We did this conversion on Sunday and it went smoothly except for one initial hiccup----after replacing the first hub, a "clicking" noise could be heard while rotating the tire in "free" mode. Well that's not right we both thought. After a little debate, we decided to do the other side and see if it made the same noise. Nope. Rotates smoothly just like it is suppose to. I had several other Aisin hubs (my parts van came with 3 sets) so we swapped out the clicking hub and ta-da, no more noise, both sides now converted to manual lockers!

All my bearings looked good too, which was shocking to me, considering how warm I have felt my hubs get before doing this conversion.

Next up-radiator recore and A/C compressor fix.

[timsrv]

Congrats on the manual hubs. I just replaced the compressor in my 86 (sure nice to have AC in this hot weather). Regarding the wabbit, I did some research on that too and it blows me away how somebody can take a good business and run it into the ground like that. Complaints all over the web regarding his unethical business practices. Tim