I'm at a loss (after over 30 years of FV). I stripped the splines from a hub in the second race of the Atlanta major - I thought it might have been NOT tightened enough. Got the old one off, no problem. Put on a new one and it won't "snug up" as it seats on the axle. Inspected axle - no noticeable wear on the splines - looks good. Tried again -- drum still rocks slightly when all the way up. I figure, it's somehow not seated enough and the axle hasn't pulled fully through the bearing, so tried tightening again to full torque - loosened nut and hub still rocks. Checked against another trans - pulled nut and found what I expected - hub fully seats without nut and doesn't rock AT ALL. Pulled backing plate assembly - got main bearing off - all looks good - checked spacer for measurement against several others and I already had the thinnest one. Pulled the spacer behind the bearing and inspected it .. obvious damage, but not TERRIBLE - but needed replaced. Put in new one - tightened, loosened and same thing. Finally measured splines sticking out from inner hub cover. I find that the splines on the "good" trans stick out about 1/8 MORE than the ones on the suspect trans. (not surprising). Swapped drums between good and bad, and found what I expected.. the bad one won't seat on the splines, no matter how much torque is applied. Went back and pulled the VW washer that's outside the spacer to pick up a few thou' of space .. still same thing.
At this point, I have no idea where to go except to remove the axle tube and axle - but I can't imagine what I might find there. The axle is free to move in/out as expected (carefully, so as to not loose the fulcrum plates behind the paddle). Putting on new drum (tried several hubs - all same result) is a worthless effort since it's obvious that the drum is not properly seated on the splines and will just wobble loose quickly, destroying another drum in the process.
Can any of you out there think of anything I haven't considered?? It just seems that the axle MUST be "mis-manfactured" and have the wrong length from that inner spacer behind the wheel bearing to the end of the splines.
Ideas??
Steve, FV80
(also posted to the interchange)