rear spindle nuts

[nebrfestiva]

Someone give me 2 minute education on these spindle nuts. The ones on there look like someone took a hammer and crushed the ends so they don't come off. How do I remove them without damaging the spindle?

[Pu241]

Screw driver or small punch and a small hammer.

Replaced with new crush nuts.

Worth noting:
Get new nuts before taking the old ones off.
Pasenger side is left hand thread
Driverside is Right hand thread
They do not interchange.

[WmWatt]

You can just unscrew them. The flats will round as the nut turns. Notice they are different colours so you can tell which goes on which side as the RHS is reverse thread. Oh, yeah, take that one off by turning clockwise. When you put them back on crimp with a hammer and punch or similar into the grove in the spindle so they won't turn and come off. You can't screw them on tight like normal nuts because they press the bearings in and the wheel wouldn't turn. Come to think of it I put some photos at

http://www.photobucket.com/Festiva-backwheel

[Movin]

The spindle is much harder than the special nut, it will not hurt anything
to just spin them off, stake when proper preload is set.

[nebrfestiva]

Got em done. Don't know if I really like the crush nut thing. I would feel more comfortable with the good old keeper and cotter pin setup, and way the adjustment works, had quite a few cuss words to say when trying to get the drums back on.

[DriverOne]

stake when proper preload is set.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... Steak............

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

I don't like crush nuts, either -- particularly on something as critical as holding the rear wheels on!

FWIW, something as hokey as "hit it to make it stay on" nuts are not allowed on any aircraft, even a puddle-hopper. Even nylon "stop nuts" aren't allowed on anything involving rotation. Where they are allowed, they can't be re-used. If you remove one, you'd better have a new one to replace it.

Anything involving rotation has to be old-fashioned castle nut with cotter, and both legs of the cotter have to be of proper length and properly bent over, and, of course, cotters can't be re-used.

Oh yeah, just in case a nut does somehow fall off (or, more likely, you forget to put it on in the first place), all bolts must point down or to the rear.

[nebrfestiva]

I was thinking, I wonder if I could drill the spindle to install a kastle nut and cotter pin.

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

I would certainly think that drilling holes for cotters in spindles would be possible, but you have to find somebody with the proper setup to do it accurately.

I have one pair of late-93 drilled spindles which I purchased on this forum, but haven't yet installed. Once I install them, I'd cycle the freed-up set repeatedly through whomever can drill them to eventually have all my Festies using castle nuts. Or, maybe some shop will accumulate some spinidles and sell them on an exchange basis.

Isn't there some issue in getting spindles off? Aren't the bolts threaded into suspension structure, but also have hard-to-get-at nuts behind them?

Note that castle nuts even come in "low height" styles, at least in Imperial units:

http://www.gen-aircraft-hardware.com/template.asp?pagename=nutcstl

If they're also available (remembering the reverse thread on one side) in metric, that might make it easier. I've seen cases on aircraft wheel spindles where the holes were drilled (by the part manufacturer) so close to the end of the spindle that the hole broke through the end of the spindle, rendering it into junk.

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

Come to think of it, is there any reason you couldn't use two normal-thread spindles on a Festy? Then, there'd be no need to locate a supply of reverse-thread castle nuts.

Airplanes don't use reverse-thread axle nuts, so why should little cars? The reverse-thread nuts tell me the Festiva desighers weren't comfortable with "stake" nuts themselves, and specified the reverse thread for a bit of extra insurance.

Question: Do the late-93 drilled spindles use reverse-thread on one side? I'm not near my uninstalled pair right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if they both use regular threads.

[Movin]

A thread pitch change to right hand on the left side is okay as long as a non-rotating
bearing retainer is used. I wouldn't use stake nuts though.


I keep pulling back on my steering wheel and nothing happens...

[PhoenixSHO]

From the ones I saw , one side is a crush nut , the other is a regular nut with a hole in the spindle to put in a cotter pin. I

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

Crush on one side and cottered on the other would be strange indeed. I own or have owned probably two dozen Festies and have never encountered that configuration.

Movin,

What's a "non-rotating bearing retainer?" Like a washer with a tab on the inside that fits into a keyway on the spindle shaft? If my memory serves me correctly, that's what the Festiva uses.

[Movin]

^^^ Yes and Yes they do, but you wouldn't believe what I have seen
sometimes..3/4" soft washer..no retainer at all, wheel bearings freshly
packed but the spindle nice, clean and dry...with bearing ground into the
radius at the back..

I have yet to find a staked nut and castle nut done properly, I had one not long
ago come in with the castle nut on and no cotter pin...no cotter pin hole either!!
I changed it back!