Rear hubs

[Musiccitylotus]

I encountered a problem with the rear hubs on our '74 Elite: They come loose after some driving, wobbling on the splines... and I did tighten the central nut, yes! Tightened them again, same effect.

Anyone had that happen before?

[GavinT]

Are the nuts castle nuts? and are you inserting the locking pin after you have torqued them up?

[Wilf]

Are the hub nuts tightening the right way? Any chance the driveshafts have been swapped over?

[Musiccitylotus]

The nuts are castle nuts, and have new pins, of course!

Wilf, what do you mean by swapped over? The threads are the same left and right, and they are in the same position as I got the car. Funny, when I got the car, the right hub was loose, too, but I thought the PO had it of at some point, cause the pin was missing.

[Wilf]

Some cars I have had, had different handed threads on each side such that the nut could not loosen itself.

[lostcause]

both rear hub nuts are the same, i.e. they arent "handed", there should be a split cone spacer behind the nut, check that this is in place, ensure everything is grit free, very lightly oil the threads and the faces of the cone spacer and the face of the nut (wd40 or similar is ideal for this) then tighten the hub nut to 200 ft/lb. tighten further to enable the split pin to pass through the castellations on the nut DO NOT LOOSEN to achieve this.You will need a big torque wrench and socket to achieve this torque, probably with a helper pressing the brake pedal for all thier worth to prevent the shaft turning, the hand brake alone probably wont hold. I had a bar that fits onto the wheel studs and rests against the ground for doing this, and borrow a 1" drive , 6 ft long! torque wrench from a friend.

You say you have got split pins through the castellated nut, if it hasn't sheared (nut undoing) then I would suggest the problem lies else where... Bearing failing? or incorrectly fitted? Cone spacer missing? threads on the hub nut or drive shaft worn allowing the nut to pop off?

hope this helps

Mark

Edited January 19, 2012 by lostcause