So we had another GT in for some normal maintenance and were trying to follow our own advice to see if the Alxe Bolt Upgrade had been performed. OEM (Allen) bolts securing the halfshaft to the flange and only one torque paint mark on each. So, we decided to take it apart to peer inside and see if the upgrade kit was in there. The good news is that the upgrade kit was present, the bad news is that was improperly installed. At first glance we thought, oh shit, one of the bolts is backing out. Nope. Both bolts are torqued. The only trouble is that the tech didn't pay very close attention to the bolt heads. One of the bolts was bottoming-out BEFORE it came into contact with the spacer. Essentially, this ~3700mi GT has been driven since 2006 with only one bolt securing this side. Crazy. The fix was near trivial. The threaded hole had a bunch of old red loctite at the bottom and a couple little scrapes with an icepick and then some compressed air, the bolt would threaded all the way in. The second mistake was that it appeared that the tech tried to perform the leaking axle TSB - or at least his own version of it. The "sealant" that he chose was clearly the wrong stuff and had dried to a brittle hardness and clearly wasn't providing much of a seal (note the dripping transaxle fluid).
The other side had bolts that were seated but didnt seem to be torqued - and there was no loctite used on them. Great work.
The other side had bolts that were seated but didnt seem to be torqued - and there was no loctite used on them. Great work.
