What sort of front hubs do I have?
Auto hubs are easy: they say "Auto Free Hub" on the chromed cover, and are what most Delicas have:
Auto hubs are nice because you don't have to get out of the vehicle to engage them. They're more prone to failure because it's the engine's driving force that engages them- if you select 4WD and floor it, they engage quite violently. Rocking the vehicle to get out of sand or mud (selecting 1st then Reverse repeatedly) causes them to disengage momentarily and then re-engage suddenly, and really hammers them.
Fixed hubs are less common, and usually found on the 4WD vans and long wheelbase wagons, but sometimes on wagon models.
Fixed hubs are the most reliable, because there's no mechanism to break. The downside is that turning the front diff when you're in 2WD creates a lot of drag and extra fuel consumption, as well as wearing out the CV joints and diff faster.
And manual locking hubs are usually aftermarket, and have a centre piece you must turn manually to engage the hubs.
Manual hubs are more reliable than auto hubs because you can only engage them by hand when the vehicle is stationary. They can still break, but it's less common. The downside is that you can only engage them by hand when the vehicle is stationary, which can be inconvenient if you're up to your door sills in mud or in traffic on an icy hillside (for example).
Pictured are cheap "Superwinch" hubs, but the manual hubs you really want are OEM Aisin FHM002 hubs (Mitsubishi part number MB160940 but available from
Amazon and
Rockauto as the more generic FHM002)
You can install any of the 3 styles of hubs fairly easily (as per John's post above), they all use the same driveshafts and mounting points. So if you get bored with your fixed hubs it's easy to install manual ones.
