Drive flange won't seat onto hub!! Help!!

[Navig8r]

Hey gang,

In my never ending saga of learning to work on a truck, I've hit a snag. I destroyed a front wheel bearing in my '72 Series III 109. Took hub apart and found lots and lots of magnetic dust. So, determined that the hub was bad and ordered a replacement. I decided to replace all bearings and races. As I had Superwinch free wheel hubs that would not come off for love or money I decided to replace them as well (since I nearly destroyed one getting it off).

On reassembly I came up with this problem; the new drive flange will not slide far enough up the axle stub to meet the hub. I thought this might be a problem with alignment on the spindle but it looks fine. One one side I have the hub reinstalled, greased bearings and all with lock nuts (not yet folded down the lock tabs). The other side is bare spindle. On neither side will the flange slide far enough up the splines of the axle stub to meet the face of the hub. It stops just shy of the hub with a clunk.

I took the new hub and new flange and put them together and they fit really, really snug; as though they were made for each other (like I imagine they should).

I took the new hub off and put the drive flange on by itself and it slides up the splines until it stops with a thunk. See photo below. I can't see any damage on the splines that is obvious, like a gouge or something and it is the same on both sides. It is stopping before it gets to the end of the splines.

I talked to the guys at Rovers North and they are puzzled by my 24 spline front stub axle with the threads for the castle nut (at least Colin hadn't seen it before). I ordered the Salisbury drive flange but maybe I got the wrong one, since 'normalized or rationalized' Rover axles were 24 spline (according to the shop I bought the Rover from in England).

I also talked to the shop in England that rebuilt the truck for me and they haven't figured out why it's not working. It's been suggested that the splines on the stub axle are bad, but what do I look for besides obvious gouges? They seem okay...

I have some photos to make this clearer. I need to know what to do and if I have the wrong parts?

[jac04]

Rationalized axles are unique. They have the same bearings inner & outer, and unique seals, and non-replaceable wear sleeves (you have to buy the entire stub axle to get a new wear surface for the seals).

Does your new hub take the same wheel bearing inner & outer? If not, you most likely have the wrong hub, bearings & seal. You may have the correct 24-spline drive flange, as RN shows 571711 for Salisbury axles.

Since rationalized axles were not fitted to vehicles sold new in the US market, the RN catalog doesn't usually address parts for them.

I'll have to see if I can dig up the part numbers for the rationalized parts. My old Lightweight had rationalized axles, so I'm familiar with them - enough to know they are a PITA to get parts for.

Edit:
Here's the info you need:

[Navig8r]

Rationalized axles are unique. They have the same bearings inner & outer, and unique seals, and non-replaceable wear sleeves (you have to buy the entire stub axle to get a new wear surface for the seals).

Does your new hub take the same wheel bearing inner & outer? If not, you most likely have the wrong hub, bearings & seal. You may have the correct 24-spline drive flange, as RN shows 571711 for Salisbury axles.

Since rationalized axles were not fitted to vehicles sold new in the US market, the RN catalog doesn't usually address parts for them.

Hey, thanks for that tidbit. No, my axle has the smaller outer bearing for the hub, so I guess it's not rationalized. FWIW, I did buy this truck in England and it's been worked on over there including a thorough rebuild with new chassis in 2005. But my spindle is tapered rather than the same diameter along it's length and the hub takes the smaller outer bearing.