ECO Hubs Who needs 3:07 gears?

[MatthewWBailey]

There were initially some weirdos on Facebook groups that were asking about them. Probably to try to home-brew their own direct drive hubs or the magical thinking of selectable hubs but that racket has died off as even the dullards have realized it's nigh impossible and/or stupid depending on what crackpot idea they had in their pea brain.

lol ..... Are they the "weld-them-up" group? ... A Cheap and dirty version of Mike's solution. It's not a terrible business model considering the intelligence level of some folks like the guy who installed the ECO hubs backwards, then did a video explaining to everyone the greatness of his truck. Pretty embarrassing. I'm sure he'd be a potential customer for welded planetaries for the affordable low price of $1099. You'll get a discount of 20% with the coupon code "WELDED".
(This is a complete Satire FYI, for anyone not following along (; )

 

[GeneralDisorder]

Yup. While welding them is *possible* if you know a whole bunch about welding castings.... But also if you are the guy that has the gear to pre-heat, weld, properly cool, and then very likely re-machine them due to the warpage you are also the guy that knows it's stupid when Mike's kit is a click of the mouse and your time is WAY more valuable than the asking price.

 

[Xengineguy]

Is there a market for the outer hubs, I installed eco hubs and now the gears are just taking up space in my shop for me to trip on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes there is a market for the outer hubs, put them in the for sale section. I sold a set recently.
if you pm me I will tell you what I got for them.

 

[Keith Knight]

I finished the eco hubs install. Everyone talks about doing a transmission relearn. After an hour searching the closest thing I can find on that is in an Allison manual that briefly says to just drive it through the gears.
Please, Can anyone give a better more complete description of the relearn procedure?

2003 M1078
Also came across in the Allison manual how to do a fluid level check using the push button selector. Is ours capable of doing this?

 

[aw113sgte]

2003 M1078
Also came across in the Allison manual how to do a fluid level check using the push button selector. Is ours capable of doing this?

Unfortunately we do not have this ability - or at least no one has been able to yet.

 

[Mullaney]

I finished the eco hubs install. Everyone talks about doing a transmission relearn. After an hour searching the closest thing I can find on that is in an Allison manual that briefly says to just drive it through the gears.
Please, Can anyone give a better more complete description of the relearn procedure?

2003 M1078
Also came across in the Allison manual how to do a fluid level check using the push button selector. Is ours capable of doing this?

.
As I understand it "Drive it Like you Stole it" and it will learn.

 

[Skyhawk13205]

I finished the eco hubs install. Everyone talks about doing a transmission relearn. After an hour searching the closest thing I can find on that is in an Allison manual that briefly says to just drive it through the gears.
Please, Can anyone give a better more complete description of the relearn procedure?

2003 M1078
Also came across in the Allison manual how to do a fluid level check using the push button selector. Is ours capable of doing this?

No the module in the valve body for level check is not there. I just ran it hard up hills, the shifts adapted pretty quickly, the only one it seems to have trouble with is a kickdown to a lower gear when climbing a hill.

 

[Xengineguy]

I finished the eco hubs install. Everyone talks about doing a transmission relearn. After an hour searching the closest thing I can find on that is in an Allison manual that briefly says to just drive it through the gears.
Please, Can anyone give a better more complete description of the relearn procedure?

2003 M1078
Also came across in the Allison manual how to do a fluid level check using the push button selector. Is ours capable of doing this?

The transmission seems to relearn very fast, just take it out for a drive . I used to go thru the relearn process but I don’t think it’s necessary. Mike

 

[GeneralDisorder]

Yep. Just drive. There really isn't any learning anyway. Transmission doesn't care what your road speed is. It's shifting based on engine load, RPM, and it's own output speed. You just go faster at any given output speed. As far as the transmission is concerned nothing has changed other than load - truck seems to weigh more and is going slower. Would you bother doing a relearn if one day you hooked up a trailer that weighed 20k lbs and decided to drive around at 30 mph? No of course not - you wouldn't think anything of it.

 

[Keith Knight]

Simple enough! Thanks for all the input.

 

[Keith Knight]

I don’t know if this is the best thread to post this on, thought it might not be seen.

Eco Hub arning!

You cannot remove or install your brake drums after you finish the eco hub installation. To do so you must modify the aluminum D shaped plugs by grinding the high points off. My 5” right angle grinder couldn’t reach without hitting the studs and a regular file would have taken forever. I found an electric band file worked best. You can purchase cheap one at harbor freight.
These high spots are what’s causing the problem.


I ground the right side and partially the left side in this picture.

I found this problem because I was also replacing my front axle seals and had the front brake drums off and when I went to put them on they wouldn’t fit.

It was much easier grinding the plugs with the drum off. The rear had the drums still on and there is a lot less room for error trying not to grind the drum or the studs.

I would hate to see someone get into a situation where they needed to remove the drum but didn’t have the ability to grind the plugs.

 

[aw113sgte]

I don’t know if this is the best thread to post this on, thought it might not be seen.

Eco Hub arning!

You cannot remove or install your brake drums after you finish the eco hub installation. To do so you must modify the aluminum D shaped plugs by grinding the high points off. My 5” right angle grinder couldn’t reach without hitting the studs and a regular file would have taken forever. I found an electric band file worked best. You can purchase cheap one at harbor freight. View attachment 931374View attachment 931372
These high spots are what’s causing the problem.

View attachment 931373
I ground the right side and partially the left side in this picture.

I found this problem because I was also replacing my front axle seals and had the front brake drums off and when I went to put them on they wouldn’t fit.

It was much easier grinding the plugs with the drum off. The rear had the drums still on and there is a lot less room for error trying not to grind the drum or the studs.

I would hate to see someone get into a situation where they needed to remove the drum but didn’t have the ability to grind the plugs.

I am able to remove mine without issue. Wonder if the D shaped pieces changed dimension at some point?

 

[Xengineguy]

The half plugs are the same throughout all that I have shipped. I didn’t know the tolerance was that clos with the drum.
I guess I should add to the instructions to push the half plugs in as close to flush as you can. Sorry for the Problem.

 

[Keith Knight]

Machining them with a matching radius would be difficult.

 

[GeneralDisorder]

Huh. Have not had that problem on the 24 wheels I have done.

 

[Skyhawk13205]

I don’t know if this is the best thread to post this on, thought it might not be seen.

Eco Hub arning!

You cannot remove or install your brake drums after you finish the eco hub installation. To do so you must modify the aluminum D shaped plugs by grinding the high points off. My 5” right angle grinder couldn’t reach without hitting the studs and a regular file would have taken forever. I found an electric band file worked best. You can purchase cheap one at harbor freight. View attachment 931374View attachment 931372
These high spots are what’s causing the problem.

View attachment 931373
I ground the right side and partially the left side in this picture.

I found this problem because I was also replacing my front axle seals and had the front brake drums off and when I went to put them on they wouldn’t fit.

It was much easier grinding the plugs with the drum off. The rear had the drums still on and there is a lot less room for error trying not to grind the drum or the studs.

I would hate to see someone get into a situation where they needed to remove the drum but didn’t have the ability to grind the plugs.

I was able to remove mine as well, when installed the half moon plugs there was some wiggle on them, I wonder if the drum dimensions are not very consistent. If I have trouble in the future I will use you tip and keep my finger file handy.

I was concerned with those half moon plugs getting damaged from dragging a wheel rim across them. I was wanting to get a brass alignment tool to thread onto a stud to help center the wheel when installing and removing.

 

[hike]

I was looking for a photo with the drums off, before I pulled the wheel hub plates though no luck. I am certain when we did the rear axle seals we pulled wheels/tires, drums, then hubs. We didn't pull the EcoHub covers and plates before pulling the drums.

Here is a detail of a rear hub off before reinstalling. The pattern the drum made on the hub seems pretty clear. I also recall having been concerned about catching the D's and turning the hub so they were pointing at 10, 2, 4 (Dr. Pepper) before installing the drums.

Its a tight fit, though our rear drums went over off and back on—

 

[Keith Knight]

Maybe I’m the unlucky one.

 

[hike]

Most of us prefer a tight fit—

 

[Primussucks]

Got after it this weekend.

Did rear hub service and ECO hub install.
Inner bearing service and seal, CTIS seals, and ECO hubs. I used anaerobic RTV instead of the specified grey...

Things I learned today.
- check the hard air lines on the hub. when i got my truck there were no ctis manifolds and no plugs in the stud. mine were clogged solid,
- 3D printed axle and ctis seal drivers take a long time to print and last about 1 seal.
- napa has 3 7/8" 8 POINT axle nut drivers in stock. i didn't realize the one i ordered a month ago on amazon was 6 POINT, until i had already cut, welded and modifed it to make it work.
- the inner bearings were disgusting.

Up next:
- rear brake PMCS
- Front hub service and ECO
- front brake PMCS