UPDATE VII: A set of NOS Free-Lock hubs included documentation stating that by December of 1973 Free-Lock had become a “Quality Division” of Dualmatic Products Company. So, I believe this suggests that Free-Lock was acquired by Dualmatic, so now the questions are 1) when did this happen and 2) why didn’t Dualmatic use the branding sooner than circa 1970 (there was a gap between the end of Free-Lock in 1959 and the re-emergence of the brand circa late 1960s or early 1970s).

UPDATE VI: I located a set of Free-Lock hub instructions that are a pre-view for a later set of near identical Dualmatic instructions. This is clear documentary evidence that Dualmatic was linked to Free-Lock.

UPDATE V: I recently packed many of my father’s tools to bring them back to Prosser. I was a regular user of them when working on my bicycles, then my jeeps. So, I thought I knew them pretty well. That is why I was so surprised and did a double take when I removed this tool from a drawer and read the name stamped on it: FREE-LOCK WRENCH …

What??? Where’d that come from? I once asked Dad about Free-Lock hubs, but he didn’t know anything about them. So, I don’t know how he obtained it.

Anyway, given the primitive nature of it, I’d have to guess it was a first generation version of the wrench. As seen below, a second, more elegant curved-design with a better branding stamp was likely introduced after this version.

Here’s a reminder of the other version of the Free Lock Wrench:

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UPDATE IV (From February 12, 2017): This page contains two later model Free-Lock hubs that resemble Selectro hubs. My theory is that Free-Lock might have evolved into the Selectro Company: http://www.ewillys.com/2019/07/08/selectro-husky-dualmatic-overview/

UPDATE III: Thanks to Steve, we’ve discovered an additional version. It is now number 5, which seems to be an evolutionary step between 4 & 6.

UPDATE II: Thanks to Frank Day and his grandfather Merton, who saved this rare piece, here is a scan of an eight page brochure related to the Free-Lock corporation. 

UPDATE: Thanks to Rob, we now have an “in-the-wild” photo of the slotted Free-Lock hub. I’ve also updated the post to indicate there were four slightly different designs and an additional patent that we’ve documented.

Original post on 12/19/2016:
In 1952, Aurthur Warn filed a patent for an adjustable clutch front hub that would allow jeep owners to engage and disengage their front axles in and out of four wheel drive. Warn was awarded a patent for his work in July of 1954.

The problem with these Warn hubs was that the clutch design was complex. With this in mind,  a company called the Free-Lock Corporation developed an alternative hub. In December of 1954, only six months after Warn patented his hub, Roy Requa submitted his design to the patent office.

We have yet to document this exact design on a jeep. The reason for this might be because the face of the final hub may look different than the design shown in the patent. Perhaps Free-Lock found that in practice users needed a tool to switch the hubs in and out. However it happened, soon the first Free-Lock hub was born. It probably began selling in 1955.

It seems plausible that the main driver behind the hub was James R. Lloyd. In April of 1956 he received a copyright for the term “One million 4 wheel drive vehicles need Free-Lock hubs”. Later in the year he received a second copyright, “The world’s finest and safest, Free-Lock hubs”. (View both copyrights here)

1. The 1-screw Free-Lock Hub: By October of 1956, the Free-Lock Corporation had created the large brochure above and a smaller one (yet to be published). The company also took out ads for the hub in Popular Mechanics (and possibly Popular Science, in which they did publish later). In the case of this hub, there is only one screw along the outer radius.

This example hub from Willys Tech shows almost the exact hub that is advertised in the ad. The missing item is “patent pending”. In it’s place, the company stamped “Denver” (there may be “pat. pending” below the Denver). Hence, some referred to these as “Denver hubs”:

2. The 2-screw Free-Lock hub: At some point, the company changed the design slightly, adding two screws and shifting the stamping. This became part of a co-pending application between James R. Lloyd, Sr., and Francois A. Heck, but filed by Martin E. Anderson and Jerome R. Strickland.

Here’s an example of that hub, along with the tool used to turn the hub. More photos can be seen at the G503 site. There are also photos of it disassembled there. Note that neither the hub above or below has a center screw.

 

 

3. The center-slot Free-Lock hub: A year later, the company was continuing to promote the hub, but by then they had added a slot screw into the center. It also shows only one screw at the edge, but it seems there may have been two screws:

Rob’s Free-Lock hub, which appears to have been manufactured in September of 1957:

Rob tells me that the center screw spins on his hubs, but doesn’t seem to do anything. And, he’s never disassembled one far enough to determine what it does. He’s just happy that the hubs work fine independently of the mysterious center piece.

A G-503 thread comment noted that a set of Free-Lock hubs had WL-57 on them. However, no pics were provided to show which type of hubs those were.

4. Free-Lock Auto-Lock 2-screw hubs non-cursive writing on tab: Around 1958, the Free-lock Corporation developed a new type of hub. It no longer required the use of the tool and was so simple even a child could use them (or so the company claimed — do we need kids messing with our hubs!). The ad can be found in the July 1958 issue of Popular Science or the December 1958 issue of Popular Mechanics.

Whether this was a dramatically different hub or just a new central mechanism for engaging and disengaging the hub isn’t clear. Thanks to herher Park for photos of his Free-Lock Auto-lock hubs:

5. Free-Lock Auto-Lock with two screws and OUT/IN with with arrows, but cursive writing on the tab. This is Steve’s hub.

6. Free-Lock Auto-Lock 1 screw hubs with minor changes and updated branding:

Here are two examples of the Auto-Lock hub that have a stylized branding of the Free-Lock name on the center piece.These hubs also have a smaller rotational piece and small tab face. In addition, the words “in” and “out” have been replaced by “free” and “lock”.  The number of screws was decreased as well, leaving only one screw on the side. Finally, “MODEL WL-58” is stamped on the face and may indicate these were manufactured in 1958. However, what the “WL” indicates isn’t clear. These photos appeared on a G503 thread: http://g503.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=162710

I believe the screw is missing in this second example:

For reasons unclear, in early 1958 Free-Lock’s president, James Russell Lloyd filed a patent with a new company, Cutlas Tool and Manufacturing Company, in Lyon’s Illinois, while possibly still working at Free-Lock. This move suggests he left the company for Cultas

What happened to the Free Lock Corporation? I don’t know. What I do know is that the last ad I could find was published in the January 1959 issue of Popular Science.

UPDATE 2023/03/08: As of 1973, Free-Lock was considered a division of Dualmatic. It appears that under Dualmatic there were at least seven hub types sold. 

Lastly, we have this oddity, a hub owned by Stephano Oddo. It’s a squat, one screw that looks similar to the original Selectro, but is shaped slightly different. To me, it’s got some nicer styling than the early Selectro hub.

Looking the same as Stephen’s hubs, these Free-Lock hubs were listed on eBay in late 2020 and they were 27-spline, meaning they might be a late 1960s/early 1970s short-lived revival of the Free-Lock brand.