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Examining the nuts & washer on the front axle has me puzzling over what keeps things from becoming loose. When a cotter pin is in place, there is about 1/8" between the pin and the outside nut. Won't the washer vibrate loose and then allow the inside nut to loosen?

On Packard Paddock's site, I see there is a gap between the pin and the outside nut

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The keyyway tab on the locking ring looks pretty worn and fragile and it's fundamental to the locking function. I'd weld a bit of metal to the tab and reshape it to snugly fit the keykway.

Cotter pin????? I don't see any cotter pin in the picture.

It appears to be a typical jam nut set up but i've never seen one with a middle washer.

It should lock by tightening one nut against the other nut. I've never seen that on wheel bearings but the jam nut (two nuts tightened against each other) is not an uncommon method of 'locking' a nut into place.

Sometimes refered to as "double lock nut".

When I first got my 115C and started to work on it, the first thing I did was check the brakes and wheel bearings. The double nut and keyed lock ring are like what is on my car. The previous owner had the two nuts jammed together without a cotter pin. It now has cotter pins in the front spindles.

(o{}o)

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=10

I want to thank to everyone for responding and especially Dave for his great write up and explanation. It was pretty much what I thought, but I wasn't sure about the purpose of the hole in the outer nut and wanted to make sure that I didn't miss something.

I repaired the tab on the washer. When I put everything back together I bent the ends of the cotter pin inwards to minimize the amount of travel the out nut could back off if it loosen up. Maybe all the nuts were all made with holes and then pins were inserted on those that were on the inside.

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Maybe all the nuts were all made with holes and then pins were inserted on those that were on the inside.


I would think that's the case, probably just a simple manufacturing expediency.