I hate to drag out something like this, but I have to here. Rambler didn't change the hub. The axle assembly was designed this way. It WAS done to save money. The hub was way cheaper. It was made of material designed to be deformed under the specific application. And the axle splines were designed knowing the final arrangement, along with the specific requirements of the application.
They needed something to transfer torque to the hub, thus the splines. But they only needed enough to handle the torque that would be applied. Seems to have worked most of the time. I'm sure they saved assembly labor, too. Just put the hub on the axle shaft, start the nut, then torque with the pre-set tool and you're all done. No need to spend time aligning anything. Again, I never thought this was a good idea. However, any time you assume why something was done or that something that may not be optimum won't work well enough, you're taking a big leap of faith. Well, that's enough from me. -- Eric Johnson Portland, OR >snip< > > Tell me why go into a trouble/expense cutting splines > (instead of simple keyway) if mating part doesn't have any? > > I'll tell you: because previous hub model did have splines > and manufacturer didn't want to change rear axle when they've > changed the hub. >snip<
