So my new FWH arrived in record time.
This will be of little use to anyone here unless they are curious about the difference between Lightweight Axles and regular Series axles . These have 10spline on the diff and 24spline on thew drive flange. Axies were rationalised in the Late 1970's where upon they started using the same as civilian models.
Fitting FreeWheeling Hubs is not just a matter of installing straight out of the box.
Hopefully the pictures will explain the difference better.
Standard drive member with end cap unscrewed, note no circlip groove or bolt on end of axle. ( A 1/4 UNF bolt welded to the end cap (cover) normally holds axle in place.
back side of standard Lightweight drive flange.
back side of out of the box AVM FWH (Bearmach BR1273 ) compare these to above, you can see the relative height from flange face to start of spline is about 8mm further out.
Since there is a great whallop of meat on the flange it occurred to me the best way forward is to remove 6-8mm of material. Not enough to compromise strength. 10 minutes on the Lathe and voila !
I didn't bother replicating the o-ring groove, more to the point I didn't have the right tool and could not be stuffed grinding a piece of tool-steel that I could turn the o-ring groove with. Hylomar to the rescue.
here the before & after comparison, note amount of material removed from mounting flange .
So if thats not clear, here is a picture of an un-modified FWH on my Lightweight hub, I have a UNF bolt screwed into the axle end so I can pull it out all the way, You see the end of the half-shaft is a long way shy of the stop circlip where it needs to be to make full spline engagement.
And here is a picture of my modified FWH , you see the half shaft is nearly all the way home. Much - MUCH better !
Instead of using a stack of washers to locate the half shaft I made some spacers from Black Acetal / Delrin
Looks like shop bought one
Now that the drive flange is thinner to be sure my bolt holes are deep enough, I cleaned the crud out and ran a M10x1.25 tap through , not sure why mine has metric threads ??
another picture
and after some road testing !! Job Done !!
(not forgetting to engage them weekly and go for a good blast to keep the front end & Transfer Box well lubricated)
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