Cj5 Hubs - Cotter Pin Holes Not Visible

Removed rear hubs to R/R cylinders & shoes. No cotter pins in axles when removed. With nothing changed, can't get hubs to go on far enough to let you see the cotter pin holes. Definitely drawn down as hammer puller needed to remove hubs. 150 ft-lbs doesn't put hub on far enough. Need suggestions on where to look to find out why. Other alternative is clean threads and use Loc-Tite.

 

the thing with taper shafts and key ways
is you really have to pay attention . to position of key when installing hubs
if if gets too far inboard . when you put hub on shaft . it will get tight before hub will seat

 

Whoever installed them before, they did get the key in wrong. Did create a lump on the hub seal surface, which I dressed down. Even without the key, it doesn't look like the hub will go on far enough to see the holes. If I leave the washer off temporarily, it would seem that the hub should push on far enough to get a glimmer of the hole, but nope.

 

Glenn, I don't think they're new. Very little is new. Looks like whoever patched or fixed what they had and carried on.

 

Think I've figured it out. Two problems actually. 1.) The last? mechanic didn't realize that the key slot in the axle tapers as it approaches the grease seal. Both hubs are sprung at the key slot because whomever torqued down on the hubs with the keys in backwards. I had to dress one hub and the other's barely visible. Installing the key with the taper pointed inwards and facing te center line of the axle made things go on much more smoothly. 2.) Apparently the axle nuts were replaced at sometime with castellated nuts that fit the shaft. One was so mangled that I had to cut it off and order a replacement. Seems the new nut is 0.615" in overall thickness. The installed nut is 1.0" high. Assuming that the washer is about 0.125", and the bottom of the cotter pin slot on the new nut is 0.3" from the face, that would put the cotter pin slot 0.425" from the hub face. Tightening the new nut on, there's plenty of room for a cotter pin. The cotter pin slot on the old BIG nut is 0.730" from its face, and the cotter pin hole definitely didn't show up after torquing. Looks like I have to order a new nut. Oh well. I have to get some other parts anyway. Thanks to everyone who had suggestions and helped solve this issue. This is definitely a fixer upper, With this and the hubs on the front being on opposite sides, who knows what might turn up next.

 

Here's a YouTube video regarding the key. The comments are about 3 minutes in.

 

Welcome from Michigan Chris, I have heard about the Swedged Studs, but not seen them, thanks for sharing. Rick

 

Swaged studs are how manufacturers held drums on axle flanges. You could put the drums on over the flange, then use screws to 'secure' the drum to the flange. (The studs did a good job holding the drum on, even if the screws are left off.) And some cars had the drums mounted on the back of the flange. To secure them (and in some cases where the drum was over the flange), the factory swaged the studs to tighten things up. In a former career, I often had to remove them. We had a drill bolt that fit over the stud and the drill's cutting teeth cut only the swaged material off. You still needed to use the hydraulic press to push them through, if you wanted to use them again. I don't think we always swaged them back on. Obviously you couldn't if you'd cut off the shoulder that had been swaged. Think we only did it when new studs were used. (Again back to the hydraulic press.) On the cuts ones, and some other applications, we used a special internal star washer or push nut that screwed down over the studs.

 

A really good process to follow when reassembling is put on the hub first by hand with the keyway lined up, slide in the key, then use the nut and washer to push the key in the last little bit. This way the key won't ride up the ramped keyway in the axle and blow out the seal surface on the back of the hub. I've sold tons of hubs to customers over the years because they tried to put the hub on after the key and it did just that.

 

Thanks. I've put the key in first, then made sure the end was flush with the hub when I put the nut on.

 

I couldn't get the nuts tight enough to get the pins in. A little grease on the washer made a huge difference. Was able to torque up to and past the specs no problem. Before the grease the nut would just stop turning.

 

Thanks, Scott, for the comment. With the new thin nuts, everything lined up nicely. Only issue now is that the new flat washers are too big for the dust caps to go over. Probably going to have to grind them down. They overhand the machined area of the hub that the dust cap sides on to. Oh well, just something else. Luckily it's my daughter's Jeep and she's in no rush to get it out and going.