Andy,
As near as I can tell, your last sentence says it all:
"I realize there's no problem once the wheel and lug nuts are on the car."
I think that that is the design goal of the rear hub. The lug nuts squeeze
the brake drum and hub extension (for wire wheels) or outer hub plate
(steel wheels) and paper gasket against the inner hub face. Yes, when you
remove the wheels, gear oil that is present in the hub, as it should be in
order for proper bearing lubrication, may dribble out of the hub/bearing if
your O-ring and paper gasket were jarred loose or are simply boogered up.
But, the oil should run in a straight line down to your waiting tennis
shoe, _just_ missing the trailing end of the leading shoe (or is that versa
vice)! Note that all of the differential oil will not leak out because the
axle tapers from the wide differential housing towards the narrow flange.
Thus, differential oil has to flow _uphill_ to get to the hub bearing. How
can oil ever get to the bearing then? Well, when you corner, some oozes all
the way out to the bearing due to centripetal force. This was how it was
explained to me, anyway. Must work, there's always oil there in the
bearings! (on my car, that is).
The real answer to "How come the axle shaft is only held on to the hub by
one small screw when the wheel is off the car?" is that BMC thought "why
use four when one will do?" On my car, the hub face is tapped for four
screws. Three of those holes were filled. I'll bet BMC at one time used
four and simply found that one was all that was needed in most instances.
Just a guess.
Hope this helps,
Jeff
>Jeff,
>
>You did a great job explaining rear hub component functions and
>refurbishment. I'm in the midst of re-doing the non-wire wheel hubs on my
>Bugeye. Your words are helpful.
>
>I have question, if you have a moment. How come the axle shaft is only held
>on to the hub by one small screw when the wheel is off the car? In other
>words, won't the gear lube leak out between the axle flange and the hub,
>after being driven and wheels removed? Is the paper gasket, O-ring and
>small screw enough to stop any leak? Do you use gasket goop on the paper
>gasket? (I realize there's no problem once the wheel and lug nuts are on
>the car.)
>
>Always wondered,
>Andy.
>'60 Bugeye
_____________________________________________________MV
Jeffrey H. Boatright, PhD
Senior Editor, Molecular Vision
http://www.emory.edu/molvis
jboatri@emory.edu
(404) 778-4113 Phone
(404) 778-2231 FAX
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