keetz, your automatic hubs sound about normal. If you still have the factory sticker on your driver's side door it mentions that you need to reverse about 5 feet in order to disengage the auto lock. They shouldn't disengage unless you reverse. Also, there is nothing to be scared of unless you hear weird noises.

That said, in the long run, I recommend manual hubs. The Gen1 auto hubs were pretty basic in functionality anyway. Automatic hubs have parts that wear down and as you found, the replacement parts are hard or impossible to come by. The manual hubs are more reliable because they have minimal wear parts. I use the Aisin FHM-002 hubs on my Gen1.

If you have your mechanic swap out your hubs, ask to keep the original onesÔÇöthey will still be a decent set of trail spares, or someone on the internet will buy them from you if you don't want them.