It's hard to say without some detailed photos of the axle and hub in
question just what we may be dealing with as far as the keyway or no keyway
question of Greg's axle. I DO know that the later 60's and 70s saw "The
Great Axle Drought", when original Amphicar drive axles were generally
unavailable for purchase anywhere. This was a recurrent topic in the Club
newsletters of the period published by Jim Nichols, together with options
for "make-do" replacements and fixes (these newsltters are available as
scans in the Club website's 'Members Only Area'). Until recently, my own
Amphicar had such a set of homebuilt axles from that period. It's possible
that Greg's "original' axle is actually some other kind of modification.
Since a common issue with these axles is damage to the keyway groove's
edges, it seems to me quite possible that a previous owner of Greg's
Amphicar may have devised some "make-do" solution to the problem, devising
some other non-kosher means to secure the axle with the hub such as a set
screw or some other "fix" (That's "dodge" to you in the UK, David). Who
knows? Maybe they were glued on.
My better-safe-than-sorry advice would be to replace the axle(s), or at
least very closely examine them and the hub against another set of NOS
originals. Maybe a nearby owner will have a pair to lend for this purpose.
Frankly though, since my hunch is that both those "original" axles'
universal joints are very probably worn out or nearly worn out by now
anyhow, and since you DO NOT want these to fly apart on you on the road with
the resulting thousands of bucks worth of reconstructive surgery to the
body's drive shaft tunnels, etc. after they finally do fly apart and smash
everything in reach to smithereens, I'd swap both axles out now. The best
axles to get nowadays are the type with a grease fitting "zerk" fitted into
the universal joint nearest the tranny. Insist on these. Oddly, some of the
older NOS original drive shafts do not have these zerks, which happen to be
one of the more critical and pain-in-the-ass grease points in the whole car
for reasons already described. They also happen to be the grease points most
often overlooked. As far as those zerk-less early shafts go, I guess the
Amphicar designers just figured we'd all happily remove our drive shafts
after every 30 hours of water use and pull apart, regrease and rebuild the
joints. Very odd.
~Bilgey~
----- Original Message -----
From: Greg
To: amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 9:28 AM
Subject: Re: [amphicar-lovers] Axle question
Boy, all this talk has me wondering if it really is
there but I'm sure it isn't. If you looked at it
compared to the old, you'd agree it IS an Amphi axle
which is what makes it so strange.
--- Michael Echemann <echemike@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Greg:
> If your axle has no place for the key way you might
> want to consider getting
> another axle. If original it should have one. Mike
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Greg" <G_Zink_us@yahoo.com>
> To: <amphicar-lovers@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Monday, March 21, 2005 6:45 AM
> Subject: [amphicar-lovers] Axle question
>
>
> >
> > I pulled one of my rear hubs for the first time to
> > replace an axle and found that my axle has a
> keyway
> > but the new/used replacement does not. Can one or
> more
> > of you experts out there who have worked on more
> than
> > one car let me know if it is common (and workable)
> not
> > to have a keyway? The replacement axle is
> definately
> > for an Amphicar so I'm guessing it's o.k. not to
> have
> > a keyway but what would prevent hub from turning
> on
> > axle under torque? Also, if it is o.k., is it
> alright
> > to use my hub that has keyway slot on non-keyway
> axle?
> > Does anyone have an extra castle nut to sell?
> Mine's
> > probably workable but got beat up a little.
> > Greg Z.
> >
> >
> >
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