Bent metal

[m35a2cowner]

I think I know the answer to this question but just in case.... As you can see from the picture someone in the past has chosen to bend the axle shield over to make a crude safety lock for the spindle nuts. Currently, they have star washers on them that seem more than adequate for keeping the nuts from backing off. I am guessing this is a non approved technique? Although I could see doing this in some type of field situation. Any thoughts? Thanks

 

[WillWagner]

It kinda looks like something might have happened in there. Why would a person bend the shield over only 4 or 5 nuts?

 

[sermis]

I’m with Will. Bearing failure, hammer to get it on, hub fell while disassemble / reassemble.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Word to the wise, those star washers are concave. I've not tried to find new ones yet. Also, grade 8 nuts are a necessity. I've ran across a few with soft nuts and they were pulling off the studs.

 

[pa.rich]

Looks like a half horse job to me.

 

[m35a2cowner]

While it may look as if something when boom in there it was intentionally done. I bent the metal back off of the nuts to take the spindle off. Almost all were bent over except the top two. The studs looked hard and the nuts were harder than anything you can lay your hands on at the average hardware store. I replaced all the star washers that looked bad. I had to take one of the spindles off again (forgot to lube inner spindle bushing and the star washers really held the bolts tightly. I torqued everything to 36 pounds which seemed plenty tight. tomorrow the rest goes back together with a bit of drive in preparation for Monday's parade. Thanks for the pointers and have a good Memorial Day.