I recently had to remove and clean the dial part of both my hubs because both of them were kind of junked up between the dial and the housing. I took them out and discovered that the little spring and ball were missing. Im positive that i didnt drop them. What are they for? Will I harm anything by not using them? I appreciate any info on this.


kev...

 

I think they just give you a better feel of when the dial is in the final position in either locked or unlocked. You will feel sort of a "click" and the dial will keep itself in that position. WIthout the spring you wont feel it and it may not be as smooth. Probably won't hurt anything. I could be waaaay off base though

But you could try to use a spring from a pen and a ball from an old ball bearing.

 

I lost the spring and ball from the engagement lever on my winch (it went sproing when I took it apart to reorient it, the ball landed a good 10 feet away in the grass...) The local auto parts store had a nice selection of springs in the drawer racks - oddly enough no ball selection, but the local building materials store (like Home Depot) had a nice selection of steel balls in their hardware racks.