Nothing mysterious or even uncommon about the wheel bearing adjustment and lock shown above, it was used by senior Packards during the 30s, perhaps later, and back into the 20s and also used on many other makes of cars, a very conventional arrangement for the time. And yes, PackardV8, it does use a cotter pin.
The wheel bearing itself is adjusted in the normal manner by means of the large nut with the pin, pin protruding outwards. That nut is then locked into place by the perforated ring with the keyway tab engaging the pin; the holes are not spaced evenly about the locking tab on the lock ring so if it won't align with the pin on the nut one way, flip it over. Then the plain nut is jammed against the perforated ring and this is where folks tend to go wrong and is why the keyway tab is so damaged on the photo above. You must use two wrenches when tightening the locking nut, one to hold the inner nut in position so as not the change the bearing adjustment and the other to tighten the jamb nut. If not, the torque of tightening the outer nut without holding the inner will both alter the bearing adjustment and be applied to the locking tab in the keyway, eventually breaking it and when it breaks the entire assembly comes loose. Finally the cotter is installed; the positioning of the cotter is such that even if the outer nut loosened, it cannot loosen far enough to allow the pin on the inner nut to disengage from the perforated locking ring. If in doubt, add a spacer washer to narrow the spacing between the outer nut and the cotter though I've never found that necessary.
This may help, you'll notice the keyway tab has been brazed to repair it and you should absolutely do the same or similar to yours:
http://www.packardclub.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=266&start=10This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=168587