Rick, While I agree with your assessment of the"specialist", I can't go along 
with the acronym. It's been my MiniMania screen name since 1999.
Bill

I can not believe that the self-named 'specialist' is not banned from this site.  So much not only erroneous but dangerous BS.

BS the acronym for BAN SPECIALIST.

Drilling another hole at the end of a CV joint is a no-no. If the end of the shaft were weakened it could snap off.
CV joints can be torqued many times but have a finite life of the threads.
Spirited driving can also shorten the life of the threads.
Picture is of Don Racine's race car at Mid Ohio.
What time is it ?

Time for a new CV.....(Note stretched/weakened threads).

Don went on to win. 

Agreed. Absolutely. The whole assembly was designed by engineers who knew what they were doing and machined and constructed to very good tolerances by others who knew what they were doing. That included a pin and holes in the right place. If what we put together doesn't work as they built it, then obviously something is not right - worn parts or improper assembly.

With all due respect, I'm not confident in drilling the driveshaft. I think the cotter is seated enough. I think the advice of "if everything is seated right...you should need it to do its job" is correct. I don't think the advice was to leave it out...goodness no.

Sir Dan, you just have to drill it straight. And dont make the hole big. If you make 2 holes across, at least you have more chances of inserting the cotter pin, rather than just not putting it at all.  Or maybe you can use blue locktite instead, that's debatable

I'm just trying to imagine drilling a small hole through the driveshaft. Maybe if one has a machine shop and has the experience drilling hard steel accurately. I know IF I tried it, I might get partway through before the drill broke and got jammed in.
.

You are miss interpreting what he said. I believe that what he is saying is if the castle nut and the hole are aligned and torqued up correctly with no wear on the assembly the nut should never come loose and the cotter pin will be just a fail safe item if the assembly loosens up.

Tony who said anything about not fitting the pin? and If you need to drill a new hole because nothing said already would not help then there's something wrong with the hub/bearings that need fixing not bodging with a new hole! Also drilling holes through the CV will weaken it at the thread possibly causing a failure at that point.

if the cotter pin did not align, i wouldn't mind drilling another hole just to insert the pin through. RATHER than not putting the cotter pin AT ALL. ...dangerous!!!!


edited: sir paul, its because lankford said he wouldnt use the cotter pin which i think is dangerous, even if everythings workng properly its still is risky.

if everything fits right, works right, stays tight,  then that cotter pin will never come into usage. 

Jeg, 

That's what I ended up doing..just bending the eye of the cotter a little to angle into the teeth. 

The bearings and races are new. There shouldn't be any wear...but I hear you that the hub may be a little worn.

You could also slightly bend the 'eye' of the split pin inwards for greater engagement between the castle-nut slots.

 1/16" is not the worse i have seen if you don't feel comfortable try what i said and put a flat washer behind it and run it around the block and re check it. I still think you need to pull it apart and check for wear though. Like 1963sv2 said if it has wear you should be able to see the disc off center when looking at it where it runs through the caliper.

When I say the axle is too far out, I mean the castle is covering the hole (the proper way) but maybe a 1/16" too far back.  The cotter still catches the castle, just not as much as I'd like it. I don't get that warm and fuzzy feeling. Maybe I being too critical.

Thanks for the attention to detail in the post 6464! (Is that what we call you?)

Good explanation and well on point.

Can you show me a picture of this early replaceable inner collar that is not a 998 or 997 7 inch disc drive flange? Steve (CTR)

Well you're not actually preloading the bearing....  You use the flat washer (piece of flat steel around an eighth thick with a hole the size of the CV end drilled in it - shape doesn't matter) to squash the CV/bearing/flange together.  Because the outer collar is tapered and split it can *sometimes* clamp/jam itself onto the stub axle so that even with the proper torque applied to the nut, the bearings etc are not properly clamped together..... 

"....the issue is that if it were packed in further, allowing the castle to thread on further, it would be behind the hole and the cotter would be in front of the teeth of the cotter. Does that make sense?.."

The way it works is this; the bearings and drive shaft slide on to the CV stub axle (which BMC describes as the "drive shaft".  The inner bearing sits on the face of the CV the bearing distance piece sits on the inner race the outer bearing inner race (getting tongue tied) sits on the distance piece and the hub and disc assembly (what i call the drive flange) sit on the outer inner race.  The drive shaft nut sits on the tapered collar which sits on the drive flange  and jams all this together. 

The only way the drive shaft nut thread can stick out too far is for the CV face to outer drive flange face distance is too short... For this to happen either the bearings, the spacer or the drive flange is too thin.. Of all these, only the drive flange is subject to wear (assuming you're using new bearings etc).  Virtually all drive flanges I have seen are worn .. (but none as badly as described).  Which is why the early flange with its replaceable inner collar seems like a really good idea.

As I mentioned earlier, if the flange is so worn to have moved this far inwards, I'm surprised that the disc is not rubbing on the upright/calliper somewhere.

IMHO the actual torque is not the critical as long as there's lots.... I drove and maintained my Mins for 30 years before I bought a torque wrench.  In those days I weighed something north of 140 lbs. I would just stand on the end of a foot(ish) long socket drive give it a bit of a bounce.  Then check it and bounce a bit more to line up the holes for the split pin.  I've never (sic) had a bearing fail. 

Actually in my own well thought opinion, there is no such thing as "how tight" to go on a castle nut because it will all depend when the hole and castle nut will align.  If you say 180lbs torque is ok  but if the castle nut and the hole does not align, you still need to go further, and further and further...until the  pin is able to get through.That's why it's wrong to formulate a theory about how tight castle nut should be. Its a case to case basis.