Rogue Half-Shaft

[AustinWood]

   

I seem to have a rogue half-shaft in my 1929 rear axle.
We recently took the back wheels off the car to repaint them and noticed the the nearside hub seemed to have a bad bearing. Very noisy when turned.
Having taken off the hub I found bearing to be good, but the noise persisted when turning the shaft itself.
With both wheels off the car and first gear engaged the noise was still there, but seemed to me from the near-side. This points to the differential being the culprit.
I have now taken the differential out and bearings look OK, so I was rather puzzled.
It seems to be caused by the pinion on the inner end of the half-shaft which I assume is not cut accurately.
There are two more problems with this shaft.
The thread at the hub end is incorrect. A new nut only goes on 3/4 turn and jams. The nut that was with it is OK.
I have had continual problems of oil coming down the tube onto the brakes.
When I fitted a new crown wheel  and pinion some 9000 miles ago I fitted lip seals to stop this which haven't worked on this shaft.
I now see why.
It is only rough machined on the section where the seal operates. No hope of the lip seal working so for now I'm going back to felt.
See attached picture.
Oil leaking onto the brakes is cured by using a sealed wheel bearing and making sure the 2 hub parts are properly sealed to.

[Steve Jones]

There were some half shafts made in Ireland 30 or so years ago. I had one once and, whilst I can't remember the details, this one does seem familiar.

Steve

[Austin in the Shed]

It's a while since I have had an axle in bits but what's the thrust bearing on the outside of the angular contact bearing for? I thought they just had the angular contacts ?
There are 2 dia's of halfshaft .875 and later .890" Do you have the right one fitted?

[AustinWood]

Up until the screw-in torque tube in 1930 there were separate thrust and axial bearings. The crown wheel mesh was adjusted by shims. It is very fiddly to set up.
From 1930 onwards the angular contact bearings and the screw-in crown wheel adjusters appeared.
The screw-in torque tube didn't last long and pinion adjustment went back to shims.
It is possible my half-shaft was intended for the 1930 onwards short chassis axles. One less bearing so not such a length of machined surface needed. If this half-shaft were in the later axle the seal would then be where the thrust bearing is on my axle.

[JonE]

I don't think the two different short halfshafts had very different lengths of machined surface, otherwise they wouldn't be geenerally referred to by having to measure their diameter?