Schwinn meridian rear drive axle

[Yon]

(09-15-2016, 07:31 AM)Slipinn Wrote:  Recently bought a slightly used 26" meridian trike. While replacing wider tires on the rear, I noticed an issue with the rear drive side wheel hub. The wheel is held on with a nut and single washer. The hub is not held firmly in a location on the axle and is able to slide back and forth on the axle a good half inch even though the nut is tightened all the way down to its bottom threads on the axle. The non drive side hub and wheel has very little play on its axle , perhaps a 1/8 inch and seems to run fine.

While the drive side hub slides back and forth and seems to be creating undue wear on the hub which is a hollow "D" shaped hub.
My question is should the rear axle have an even amount of axle sticking out of the bearings on both sides and thus allowing me to remove some of the play out of the drive side or was the rear axle designed this way for some reason to allow the drive hub to slide back and forth on the axle? To me it seems like if the play was removed the hub would not wallow out from sliding back and forth.
It looks like the solid rear axle is held on by two large nuts on each side seating it to the bearings and frame. Any help is appreciated.
Chuck

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Just bought new 7 speed and the nut was to thick keeping the wheel from setting properly, the wheel just wiggled round, so I cut the nut thickness to match the nut on the other wheel and the wheel than went all the way on and is firm in place. I emailed Schwinn about this but no reply. If you can't cut it a good hardware store may have thinner nuts to fit - com-plane to schwinn at Call 800-626-2811, 7 am to 6 pm, CT. Yon