<VV> Loose axle.

[Hugo Miller]

Let me start afresh, as the waters seem to be getting muddied, as they 
invariably do with any extended internet exchange. I was getting up & 
down play at the inboard end of the axle shaft (not end-to-end). I 
speculated that, among other possibilities, this may have been due to 
play in the differential bearings (the big ones). That was why I was 
intending to make sure that castellated nut was tight. I also made clear 
that I was fully aware that if there WERE play in there, it would almost 
certainly have been due to one of the bearings breaking up, so if that 
were the case I knew I had a bigger problem to deal with.
This was always fairly well down my list of possibilities, but then Ed 
Lindsay from West Florida Corvairs chimed in to suggest that the whole 
issue may have been due to nothing more than the suspension being 
partially dropped, thereby pulling the axle shaft part of the way out of 
the diff. And it turns out he was dead right. I checked it with the car 
with its feet on the ground and the play had gone.
I was never in any doubt, incidentally, about the function of those 
castellated nuts or the bearings behind them - I was merely speculating 
as to whether that is where the problem may have lain. So all the 
various admonishments that I should get a manual etc were missing the 
point of my enquiry. This is a continual phenomenon with internet 
exchanges unfortunately. A person will say one thing, but the person 
reading it hears something different. It always happens, so everybody 
always ends up at cross-purposes, which is frustrating!
I hope my thought processes are now a bit clearer. I have to say I was 
surprised that dropping the suspension a few degrees would make such a 
difference to the play, but it has. Similarly I was very surprised that 
cleaning one carburettor has completely cured the detonation I was 
getting and transformed the running of the car. But it has. The only 
remaining test is whether my efforts at blowing and sucking all the dead 
leaves out of the fins without taking the top cover off have been 
successful. I haven't been on a long enough run yet to find out, but I 
have a good feeling about it, and I do seem to be on a roll at the 
moment (famous last words!). We shall see!

On 2020-03-04 21:54, Charles Sadek wrote:
> Be careful using a hammer or other impact tool. Look in Clark's
> catalog online to see what they sell. You'll see how it interlocks..
> Those "teeth" break off. The sleeves are very fine threads... 
> Remember
> what Smitty said. By adjusting a sleeve, you would be moving the ring
> gear vs the pinion gear. That really has nothing to do with a loose
> axle yoke... If in fact, the yoke is loose on the axle, fine shim
> stock has been used to tighten up the fit - if you can get it in
> there. After you said problem solved, it implies you were seeing ed 
> to
> end play, not the yoke being loose.
>
> Going to bed here in the Colony.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: VirtualVairs [mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On
> Behalf Of Hugo Miller via VirtualVairs
> Sent: Wednesday, March 4, 2020 9:15 PM
> To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
> Subject: Re: <VV> Loose axle.
>
> Yes I know that. I wasn't proposing that it might have just come 
> loose.
> As I said in one of my posts, if there is any play there I'm in 
> trouble
> anyway. I was all for popping the tab off & giving it a clout with a
> hammer just to see if it moved. But the problem has gone away now so
> I've saved myself a job.
>
> On 2020-03-04 21:01, Charles Sadek wrote:
>> There is a bolted tab keeping the "big castellated nut", i.e,
>> adjusting sleeves, from turning or coming loose.
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Subject: Re: <VV> Loose axle.
>>
>> If the bearing were “collapsing” as you suggest, it’s likely the 
>> ring
>> and pinion would lock up and the car would not run.
>>
>> Bill
>>
>>> On Mar 4, 2020, at 5:32 PM, Hugo Miller via VirtualVairs
>>> <virtualvairs at corvair.org> wrote:
>>>
>>
>> But if one of those castellated nuts WERE to come loose - and I
>> accept that such a thing is practically impossible unless one of the
>> bearings is collapsing - then I would indeed have play in the axle
>> shafts, would I not? But I would expect to feel it on both sides.
>
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