Well I recently acquired a 93 4wd Sidekick with Automatic locking hubs. To my disappointment, its not a "shift-on-the-fly" system. You have to bring the vehicle to a complete stop shift into 4wd (to engage the front driveline) then once the vehicle starts moving again the hubs will sense the front axles are now turning, which inturns engages the front hubs. Then its my understanding that if you back up, the hubs will unlock and relock.

Anyways - I like the good old manual locking hubs that I know are engaged at a turn of the dial, so I wanted to swap them out. Warn and Superwinch makes locking hubs for this application, but they are around $100+ for a set. Also Warn hubs use straight through bolts which are known as a weak point since the bolts can loosen up with use and shear off. While the Superwinch ones use the nicer factory style cone washers (like Aisin hubs) and are known to be more reliable.

But with me being a cheap skate - I wanted an inexpensive solution. Locking hubs was a factory option, so you can find them in wrecking yards that "swap right on". But the sidekick/trackers seem to be fairly rare in my local wrecking yards plus they would probably charge me close to what they want for new aftermarket hubs. Again thinking with my empty wallet I looked for other options.

I've "heard" of people swapping on Samurai hubs onto the Sidekick/Trackers since they both have 22 spline front axles. Searching around on the web I found this post explaining thats is possible. but unfortionately there isn't a bunch of good pictures showing what teh guts of these hubs look like and possible solutions since teh sami hubs are not a 100% bolt on.

http://bbs.zuwharrie.com/content/topic,45247.msg477906.html#msg477906

So I called around my buddies to see if anyone had some Sami hubs they could donate for the cause. Well lucky for me I found 3 freinds that had bits and pieces of Sami and random Aisin hubs that I got for free, Thanks guys. Sami's and Sidekicks have a 22 spline count, IFS Toyota's have a 27 spline count, and Solid Axle (SA) Toyota's have a 30 spline count. But "basically" everything else is the same in the Aisin hub. I believe Isuzu's use Aisin hubs also, but I haven't messed with those.

Please note that I haven't cleaned up and rebuilt my hubs yet, but if you want to know how, check out this thread:

Rebuilding 1979-1985 Toyota Manual Locking Hubs
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=281879

So it was time to tear into it. First I removed the Sidekick Auto hub.

So why won't it slide all the way on, its because the splined hub gear hits this retaining ring on the axle shaft.

Solution 3: Again some people just remove the retaining ring and then install the hub. Doing that will let the hub fully seat. But now the axle can float in and out. At ride hieght I could push my axle in about 5/8" with my finger... at full droop - it might be able to go in even farther and completely seperate from the locking hub which isn't ideal! While it would work - I really don't like this idea of the axle floating around that much.

Solution 4: There is a also small spacer / thrust washer behind the retaining ring. It hard to see the picture, but its there. If you remove the retaining ring, then remove the spacer and then reinstall the retaining ring, you can slide the hub on and have it fully seat. But that lets the retaining ring ride against the end of the spindle where you could possibly damage the spindle or the retaining ring maybe even booger up the threads. Again this will work - but not real ideal.

To bad I don't have a REAL sidekick locking hub to look at to see what the factory did. But I have a feeling that this would be another solution. See a IFS toyota locking hub is recessed deeper than the SA Toyota locking hub. Ref: http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?p=5979707#post5979707 And from my measurements, it appears the outer part of the locking hub for a SA toyota is identical to the outer part of the locking hub for a sami. Too bad I don't have and IFS toyota hubs right now.

Possible Solution 6: Swap a Sami 22 splined hub gear into a IFS toyota locking hub body and the slide that Hybrid assembly onto the Sidekick axle. I believe this would bolt right up and is basically what Aisin did originally for the sidekick locking hubs. If I find a IFS toyota hub - I'm going to try this.

Toyota Solid Axle hub on the Left - Toyota IFS hub on the Right

So there you have it - All the possible ideas I could think (and have read about on the web) of how to retro fit some manual locking hubs onto a Sidekick / Tracker. And if your lucky like me - you just might be able to do it for free.