The Red Bull RockCrawling Team installs X-Lock
Spindle Nuts by Stage 8 By Dustin Webster
First off, a disclaimer! In this
article, I will refer to a part I call a "spindle nut"... The
actual name for this part is either a "hub nut" or "spindle nut"
or "wheel bearing nut" depending on who you talk to. Some
people will say that spindle nuts are the small nuts that hold
the spindle to the outer steering knuckle. Others call
those smaller nuts, "spindle retainer nuts". For clarity,
I am speaking about the larger nuts that thread onto the
outermost portion of a spindle and hold the wheel bearings in
place and in the proper state of pre-load. The below photo
shows the general type of nut I am referring to:
The background:
For years, our team has had issues with
losing spindle nuts or fighting with a less than perfect design.
Four times we have had issues.
On the Dana 44 of our daily driven stock
modified Jeep, we did a popular full-float axle conversion and
only one month later lost a wheel while flat towing due to poor
quality control on the hardness and design of the spindle nut
washers that came with the kit. The washer was so soft
that the locking "tang" eventually spun itself out of the
spindle keyway and allowed the spindle nut and spindle jam-nut
to unscrew on the Driver's side of the vehicle. On the
driver's side, the wheels are usually spinning
counter-clockwise, in turn putting a loosening force on the
spindle nuts on that side. Talk about a bummer driving
along in your towrig and watching your Jeep's wheel passing you!
We
were not the only ones to suffer this problem.
Within a year of that incident, after we
switched to Dana 60's, we made the jump to the Dana spindle nuts
with the pin style inner hub nut. The design was quite
simple with a small pin engaging the center washer and keeping
everything from spinning. Well, simple or not, we made an
installer error on one occasion, not getting the small pin
properly engaged into the washer, and ended up with a very loose
spindle nut. The collateral damage from that was a damaged
set of bearings as well as damage to the small spindle bearing
(the small bearing inside the back of the spindle where the
outer axle rides). You might ask how a bearing inside the
spindle could be fatigued by the wheel bearings being
loose...well, here's how: The hub was loose causing the
drive flange to run out of alignment and in turn the outer axle
ran out of alignment (wobbling) and that side loaded the small
roller bearing enough to damage it. Talk about a hassle...not only were we
at a competition and had to come up with new wheel bearings, but
also to remove that small spindle bearing without proper
tools...TALK ABOUT A "P.I.T.A.!" Anyway, that was the
second time we were bitten and no chance we'd get bitten a third
time...right? Well, no, not if we go with a new kind of
spindle nut that came out...so we tried the newest one hat came
out a few years ago.
That new spindle nut came with the
RockCrusher Axles we put into the RockHer 1. Although the
nuts looked like they had good potential, they had two problems.
First, there was no tool in existence that could install the
dang things. We had to make our own and it was a pretty
weak tool considering the design of the nuts along with the
internal spacing between the spindle and outer hub.
Second, it only had a couple of possible positions to set the
locking "set screw" and that meant we couldn't get the
adjustment of the adjuster nut to the tightness (bearing
preload) we prefer. We tried
them for a season and finally decided to ditch them.
Going back to the Dana Spicer Spindle nuts,
we vowed to take better care installing them to ensure the
engagement pin was perfect each time. Here's a photo
series showing you how they go together:
The inner nut goes onto the spindle and gets
tightened up against the wheel bearings to the proper torque.
The red arrow shows the engagement pin.
The locking washer has a "tang" that slides into
a keyway on the spindle keeping the washer from rotating and the
engagement pin slides into the washer, keeping the inner spindle nut
from rotating.
When the washer is properly in place, the pin
looks like this, poking into the hole...the problem is, when you
are in a hurry or the lighting isn't just perfect, you may not
get the pin exactly in place and the washer no longer acts as a
lock. This photo shows the correct install.
The next shot just shows the jam nut that
tensions against the locking washer.
Pretty simple right??? Well, it should be, but I
cannot tell you how many times I have seen this messed up simply due
to installer error or the jam nut not holding in the proper tension.
We've suffered this fate twice now. I already described the
first time, but the second time was FAR more dangerous! In the
past couple of months, we
were in competition and had to do a quick change of the front High-9
differential due to a locker issue. When putting the axle back
together, we were in a hurry and somehow didn't get the spindle nut
on properly. Because we had not noticed the wheel wobbling, we
ended up breaking a brake caliper mount (the part that is cast into
the caliper). When we locked up the brakes, the caliper spun around
the axle and tore out the brakeline and Becca lost the
brakes...clearly, a very dangerous situation. She was alright
because we have redundant braking systems on our rigs (something
most people do not have) but had she been on a big downhill with no
time to think, or not had the redundant braking options, things
easily could have gone far worse.
Now you know that we've had some
issues...including issues that had a wheel leaving the vehicle
entirely on the highway, and Becca losing the brakes on a
competition course...both easily situations that could have killed
someone inside or outside the vehicle. Funny to think that a
simple nut could cause so much trouble, but it's happened to MANY people, so
it's not just a fluke thing.
As we always push for safety and much of the
time, find that safety in new technology, we were excited to hear
from another team that there was a new Spindle nut available that we
haven't yet seen. I did some research and after seeing the
concept, ordered up a set. The reason I'm writing this story
is simple. This product will completely eliminate the deadly
issues we've had...PERIOD. If you're running a Dana 44 or 60
spindle, you should consider Stage 8's new "X-Lock, locking spindle
nuts.
Here's the sequence Mike Foster (one of our crew) went through
to swap to the new spindle nuts:
After jacking the wheel off
the ground and properly supporting the axle with a jack-stand,
Mike pulled the drive flange cap by removing the three Allen
bolts
Then Mike used a small pick to remove the spiral clip that holds
the actual drive "slug" in place. This is a
PolyPerformance Drive Flange by the way...other brands may
remove/install differently.
Using a bolt taken from the flange cover we
just removed, Mike screws it in a few turns to create a handle
to pull the slug out with. If it doesn't come easily, Mike
can just spin the wheel to relieve possible tension on the axle
or flange splines. Note the dirt on the outer edge of the
outer flange splines???...someone's
in trouble for installing a dirty flange during a speedy swap at
a recent event ;-)
Next, we removed the Spicer spindle nuts
shown in the photos above.
FYI, we never had to remove the wheel or any
other components as we're only switching the spindle nut.
This makes the swap easy and quick.
Now for the order that the Stage 8 X-lock
goes together. As it was impossible with my camera to show
you the install inside the hub, we'll just show you on the
ground how it works.
First, the large flat washer or "spacer" is
installed over the spindle and up against the outer surface of
the outer wheel bearing. This washer does not have any tang and
is the same on both surfaces, so it can be installed with either
side facing the wheel bearing. Next, the main locking
device (let's call it the "star") goes in place. It has a
tang that must be indexed so the tang slides into the keyway in
the spindle. The "star" can face either direction as both sides are the
same. You can see how beefy this piece is. NO CHANCE
that the tang or indexes will fail!
Follow that with the single adjuster nut.
It is much thicker than the nuts anyone else supplies and is
cut with 8 reliefs instead of the usual 4. This gives you
two different index option with your hub socket. That nut
is tightened to the proper torque specs for your
application...be careful to ensure you are using the wheel
bearing nut torque specs and not the jam nut specs as the jam
nut specs are far too tight for wheel bearing preload.
Keep in mind, this design does not use a jam nut, so you'll only
need to know the torque spec for the proper wheel bearing
preload.
Next comes the locking assembly that I'll
call the "spider". It can be installed with a set of snap
ring pliers as there are two holes simply for holding it that
way. You don't actually "spring" them with the snap ring
pliers, you only hold them. That was a great idea as
installing and pulling those Spicer washers is a hassle if you
don't have tiny fingers. Indexing the Stage 8 version is a
cakewalk.
Anyway, the "spider" has 8 different possible
positions but only one will fit depending on the positions of
the "star" and the adjuster nut. Mike didn't get lucky and
get the right 1 out of 8 on the first try, but the 4th position
he tried slid right in. In this photo, you can see how the
"spider" engages the "star" AND the adjuster nut in 8 different
places apiece. That means you'll have far more holding
power that you'd ever need.
Now comes the snap ring that holds the
"spider" pressed tight into the "star". Notice there are
two different snap ring slots? This makes it nice because
you can install the nut either direction and you can still
assemble everything...another good idea by the manufacturer.
So that's it! Simple and effective is
an understatement. Mike put it all together in a matter of
minutes and knowing the hassle it usually is doing the Spicer
spindle nuts, we're stoked to not have to keep adjusting the
nut, installing that washer with a million holes, only to find
you have to change your preload 5 more times until the locking
washer indexes properly...then if all the planets are not in
alignment you'll still have issues, just like the ones I
described at the beginning of this article.
You know, it was tough admitting we had a nut
problem ;-) But I know for me, I'm glad to have found the
solution.
Stage 8 - Ask your friendly Pirate 4x4 vendors if they are
a retailer!
