Rear Hub Nut Failure - 15th August 2011

Recently we had a problem with Andrew Sharp's DB2 rear hubs, one of which came off at high speed at the Silverstone Classic, we have identified & sorted the problem, However we have since had a similar problem with both Nick Ruddell's and Nigel Batchelor's DB2/4 rear hubs coming loose.

A few points to note:

Its nearly always the left hand hub - it also affects Jaguar & Daimler Dart left hand hubs, along with Lotus Europa's, Hillman Imps, MGB's & Sunbeam Alpine's, although these do not have Salisbury Axles, the Europa & Imp are easily cured

The original hub nut is a 'slotted' nut with a split pin, the split pin serving no purpose except to to keep the nut from falling off.

The nut is made from EN8, I checked with the manufacturer.

It is reduced in strength by having slots in it

It is further reduced in strength by having sharp corners in  the bottom of the slots.

See pictures - this is what happens to the nuts.

This can happen to your road car, it happens to DB4 to AM V8 front upper & lower ball joint nuts, however a solution will be available for that seperately.

We have made a proper nut that can be torqued up to 180lbs ft, it doesn't have any slots, it has the washer built onto it & comes with instructions to fit - see DB2 Transmission & Axle then Axle or search part number 56858R

Its also made of proper material not butter as the the originals are.

It just doesn't come undone no matter how much testing & racing we have done.

For further news on Andy's rear hub problem please rear Tech Bulletins regularly !