On my old Squareback, the splines went completely away while I was off in
the boonies of western Arizona.  Thought sure I had blown a tranny.

Karl Wolz

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Sato" <edsato@JUNO.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 10:25 PM
Subject: Re: Type 2 Rear Axle nut coming loose?

> Maxwell
> I had the same problem on my vanagon with the cupping on the hub. Turns
> out that whenever the nut gets loose the splines on the hub wears down.
> Thus the hub and axle has play in it. When ever you back up and go
> forward the looseness between the axle and the hub shears the cotter pin
> and the bolt becomes loose. This happens no matter how tight you make the
> nut. The fix is to get another hub cause this is softer than the hardened
> axle and will wear first on the spline. If the new hub still has play
> after it is fit on it will have to be replaced also. On mine luckily I
> figured it out early and only had to change the hub. Hope this helps.
> Aloha, Ed