@Scuba Steve
Fitted mine yesterday and as you quite rightly stated, it's a direct replacement. I did notice, though not a problem, that the thread on the locknut side is a few threads shorter than my old axle. This meant that I could only fit the one nut and didn't have enough threads to fit the second locknut. Did you notice this when you fitted yours?
The drive is much much quieter now, I must have had a poorly machined original secondary gear.
I must admit I did have a bit of a tussle with the locknuts in trying to fit them but just took it as the norm.
Eventually I managed to get them both on, after persuading the drive side with a rubber mallet and putting a wooden block underneath while the bike was on its side, to give me enough thread to work with.
I was going to sacrifice the rubber washer as it was spotless and didn’t appear to have been called for. Once all the locknuts were fitted and everything was running, I put a bit of black sealant around everything I thought could be prone to water ingress so really the washer could have been sacrificed if needed.
Interestingly the motor is running better than ever since the work and the damage was probably caused by the locknuts working a little loose in the first place which has now been rectified with loctite.
Pleased you got yours running sweetly again. What grease did you opt for? I went with Mobilith SHC 100 which so far has kept things as quiet as a mouse and at only £7 a tube a much cheaper option.
Roll on the Spring and the sunshine
