fitting anual hubs should be a doddle right? ahhhhhhh!

Ok, found I had no four wheel drive, so fitted some Tyrex freewheeling hubs. Disconnected and capped the vaccuum pipes. Didn't disconnect sensor under battery as getting cold and I wasn't sure I had the right bit. Should be hunky dory right? Still no drive to the front wheels whether set to 4x4 or 4x2. When in gear and front jacked up, wheels spin freely by hand, except passenger side makes a ticking sound as it spins. As you can no doubt tell, I am to mechanicing as Mary Berry is to shot putting, so helpful suggestions would be apprecitaed. Ceheers

Ticking noise could be a broken CV.
It's always best to trouble shoot the vacuum system before ditching it. It's simple and easy to maintain.

Jack the front axle off the ground. Put car into 4 wheel drive mode. Lock in hubs. Try to turn each front wheel by hand with other wheel chocked. Wheel should not rotate. If it does, drive has been interrupted. Do both sides. Probably one side defective, but you need to check free wheeling hubs for correct operation. but you need to check drive from T/box. Jack up front with both wheels off the ground. Make sure car stable and safe. Use axle stands or similar. In 4 wheel drive propshaft should not rotate. Release 4 wheel drive, propshaft should rotate. If it rotates when in 4 wheel drive, you have t/box problem.

You only need to jack one front wheel off the ground. Select 4wd, switch hubs to 4x4 or locked and jack either front wheel off the ground. If you can rotate the wheel by hand somethings wrong. Looking  at the front prop while turning the wheel by hand, if it's rotating hubs are good and transfer box isn't selecting 4wd, if it's not turning one or both hubs are not locked. Then remove the hub on the jacked wheel and try to rotate the half shaft, you'll need a mole grip or a big pliers if you can't turn it the other hub is locked correctly and the one you've removed wasn't locked, if you can turn it the other hub isn't locked, and the one you've removed might or might not have been locked  either. 

Brilliant that makes sense. Tried it with both wheels seperately and it looks like neither hub is making the connection as spinning freely when other wheel is on the ground. No rotating half shaft . Next question. WHY? New hubs look like substancial pieces of engineering, and when I twisted the dial off the car, the centre seemed to move in and out as expected. Starting to feel like I've missed something obvious? Other than disconnecting vacuum tubes, capping and doing a straight swap, is there anything else to this?

Take a hub off and see if you can turn the driveshaft, and if that makes the propshaft spin.
 

Or the other way round.

Roger

OK, found the problem, ticking sound was the oversized toothed doughnut on the new hubs spinning baggily on the end of the half shaft. Right number of teeth, just hole about 2mm too large. Either i'ts manufacturer mistake or previous owner fitted some none standard shafts. Think very carefully before buying Tyrex TY08571.Will have to wait for dealer to get back to me with a fix. Oh well, A few more days work not getting done on this small holding. Wishing I'd drilled and sunk a bolt through the original hubs now.

Just put the original vac hubs back on in the locked position, no need to fuss about drilling holes in them. I've been competing for four years with mine like that and another four years in my previous Jimny.

The advantage of the screw method is you don't even need to remove the hub. With a 20mm self tapping screw it takes just a couple of seconds. No fussing about at all!