Re: 4wd light, SSTC, other stuff

[jlandry@domain.elided (John A. Landry)]

LATE BREAKING NEWS: Jason Colavecchia <jasoncolavecchia@domain.elided> wins the
40 million dollar lottery and says:

>I wish someone made a replacement for the scout style lockomatics..they
>are pretty cool...does anyone offer a rebuild kit?? I  have at least 6
>pairs at my disposal, but none are fully operational...

Warn quit making rebuild kits years ago.  The only part which
*theoretically* should ever wear out are the plastic friction pads and
maybe the rubber seals.  As long as the hubs are cleaned, lubricated and
the spindle nuts stay where they are supposed to, nothing else should wear
out.  The seals are easy to get as they are common with other Warn hubs,
and generally they simply need cleaning and soaking in silicone lubricant
to reuse.

The plastic friction pads are the biggest problem to reviving old auto
hubs.  The originals were injection molded.  Ya know, I don't think it
would be too difficult to make a small drill press mounted injection mold
to make one or two parts at a time.  I recently saw a neat little simple
bench mounted injection molding machine made by a retired tool and die
maker.  It uses ground up HDPE film canisters (from photo processing shops)
to make little bezels for some lights of a machine.  Make one or two at a
time would be slow and tedious, but for the small demand out there, a guy
could easily fill the need in a weekend of work.

I'll have to explore this idea.  I have a friend who is an active tool and
die maker and possibly he could help me make the mold.  I wonder if the
friction pads are the same between the early and later auto hubs.  Hmmm.

John L.
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