Swingaxle seal 1966 bug

[ptspringer]

I have a 1966 bug that I have driven for about 30 years. Recently, the drivers side rear axle seal has been leaking oil. This happened about 15 years ago on the passenger side and I was able to successfully install a new seal kit back then.

When I went to replace the seal this time about four weeks ago, I noticed that the axle nut was not tight, just snug, maybe 10 ft-lbs of torque was all i needed to remove it, rather than the 300 ft-lbs I expected. The seal was likely original - over 50 years old, I had not replaced it in my 30 years as a daily driver. The cotter pin was in place so that nut did not back out on it's own.

I replaced the seal, gasket, and O-rings after cleaning it up. On reassembly, I torqued the nut to ~ 300 ft lbs & installed a new cotter pin. After a week or so it started leaking again. (a few teaspoons a day) I figured I must have sliced the big O-ring so I went to install a new kit today. Once again I found the axle nut was only snug. So rather than replace I tightened the nut up to the proper torque to see if that would fix the leak.

I'm hoping that the seal was not down to full depth when I installed it, and it worked it's way down releasing the torque on the axle nut and opening a leak on the O-ring that might not be then properly compressed.

Or could it be that something is broken and giving way under the stress?

In few weeks I'll know if the leak has stopped. Has anybody experienced a loosening axle nut after a new kit, and if the leak is not stopped what should I inspect/replace, before a new seal kit??

Thank you,
Paul

[57BLITZ]

[ptspringer]

Thank you.

I read that the axle nut can loosen if the splines on the drum are worn and cause motion that harms the seal.

That still means I need to replace the seal - which I'm going to go do now.

[bluebus86]