83 Brat front hubs rattle

[bartbrat]

Got this Brat a year ago. 130,000 miles and it's in very good condition. Appears to not been off-roaded. I did replace the front axles as the boots were torn, Noticed a little rattle 6 months ago and tightened the big nut on the axel. This lasted for 1000 miles and the rattle came back. I replaced the hub and cone washer. Now the other side started the same thing. I can't tighten the nut anymore and there's still play around the cone washer. What gives? I'm not finding anything in the forum, which is a first. Maybe I'm not searching correctly? Not seen this problem on our other 2 Brats that are used hard.

[djanikowski]

Sounds like you need to check the washer that goes between the castle nut and the cone washer. Not sure if the EA81s and EA82s are the same, but at least on the EA82s that washer needs to be convex out, so it makes contact with the inside of the castle nut and the outside of the cone washer, otherwise it won't hold the torque.

[wagonist]

As above, there should be another flat washer of a few mm thick between the cone washer into the hub & the castle nut.

If you don't have these, then you won't be able to get the castle nut tight as it will run out of thread.

[bartbrat]

Hey djankowski and wagonist, great info and thanks for taking the time to help. That's what I get for not reading the manual. Will go fix this right away! B

[ivans imports]

Chage hubs splines are worn to badly also watch out for axles with older car ends on them have had rebiuld axles with 70s outer ends slight diff in spline length and will never titen right. Also make shure 200ft lbs or better on that nut