Rear Axle Nut Inspection Recommendation


Indy GT

Yea, I got one...too
Mark IV Lifetime
Jan 14, 2006
2,526
Greenwood, IN
Guys, when BigInch Blake and I were at our last car show, he showed me something disturbing on his GT. The driver side rear axle nut paint stripe did not align. This is a safety critical nut which holds the rear axle assembly together. When the final assembly person torqued these nuts a paint stripe was applied to the nut and to the axle. The theory being that if the two paint stripes maintained alignment, the nut (or bolt as these paint stripes were applied to bolt heads as well) was still properly torqued or tensioned.

It is fairly easy to check this on your car. If you have the optional BBS forged wheels you will need to remove the wheel to gain visual access to the nut, unless you can remove the center cap without removing the wheel. I have the standard wheels and if you remove the chromed triwing plastic cover to gain access to the wheel lug nuts you can see the axle nut and its striping.

While preparing my car for this year’s rally, I inspected my nuts and found a similar situation on the driver side. The two stripes were off by approximately 40 degrees, signifying loosening of the retaining nut. The passenger side was off just slightly and not nearly as much as the driver side. See pictures.DSCN1622.jpgDSCN1624.jpg

I would suggest looking at these nuts on your vehicle. As I stated, this is classified as a safety critical torque and the nuts should be torqued to 400 newton meters plus/minus 30 Nm. Ok, for those CGS challenged 295 ftlbs plus/minus 22 ftlbs. This is a big boy torque. My half inch torque wrench only goes to 150 ftlbs so I had to borrow a much larger three quarter drive wrench to torque the nuts back to spec.

Just an FYI to the ownership.
 

jbyrnes

FORD GT OWNER
Mark II Lifetime
Jun 13, 2006
224
Louisville CO
Thanks for the heads up. Curious what the rough mileage of the two cars are.
 

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,053
Las Vegas, NV
Duplicate...
 
Last edited:

twobjshelbys

GT Owner
Jul 26, 2010
6,053
Las Vegas, NV
Some one has to say it: I inspected my nuts tonight and can't see what you're talking about.

Can you get in there with one of the mirrors on an old telescoping radio antenna thingie?
 
Someone posted a thread late last March or early in April about this. I checked my wheels at that time (15,800 miles on my car) and they were OK. Once you have removed the wheels or the axle covers in the wheel centers, you shouldn't need anything to see the paint stripes, they are right on the ends of the axles and axle nuts.
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
Good info. I am surprised neither a hitch clip or cotter pin is used to retain the nut.
 

Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
Watched David (the GT with the trailer) do this at Dearborn. With the forged wheels, just pop the center cap off with a small flat screwdriver. One of the items he keeps in the trailer is the biggest torque wrench I've ever seen.
 

RALPHIE

GT Owner
Mar 1, 2007
7,278
Watched David (the GT with the trailer) do this at Dearborn. With the forged wheels, just pop the center cap off with a small flat screwdriver. One of the items he keeps in the trailer is the biggest torque wrench I've ever seen.

I would recommend an Orangewood stick as opposed to a small screwdriver. Much easier on the surfaces.
 

Indy GT

Yea, I got one...too
Mark IV Lifetime
Jan 14, 2006
2,526
Greenwood, IN
Thanks for the heads up. Curious what the rough mileage of the two cars are.
I probably should have stated I have approx 12K miles on my car, never had any work done on the axles other than Ford replacing the interior axle bolts as part of the TSB and no hard burnout history. The car has been tracked multiple times however I would have thought it logical for the suspension designers to have dialed that into the design.

I am confused by the "two cars are" comment. The nuts pictured in my post are for a singular car, left and right side. Was that not clear?
 

Brombear

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
May 16, 2013
1,396
Frankfurt Area, Germany
I inspected my nuts tonight ...

while starting to read this I wasn't sure where this would end up :lol
 

Wwabbit

GT Owner
Mar 21, 2012
1,259
Knoxville, TN
Inspect it twice a year. Either retorque to 250 ft/lbs or just realign the marks. Mine moves off center a tad every 1000 miles or so.
 

topshot

GT Owner
Feb 6, 2012
280
Metro Detroit, MIchigan
I torque mine before each track day,,, it's on my list so I just do it... had to buy a quality "Snap On" wrench as the cheapo Harbor Freight one broke ..
 

DanQ

GT Owner
Aug 18, 2005
336
Lake Zurich, IL
Are the nuts "handed", or are both sides righty tighty, lefty loosy?
 

paul b

GT Owner
Nov 2, 2006
810
Could this have anything to do with factory replaced control arms?
 

Wwabbit

GT Owner
Mar 21, 2012
1,259
Knoxville, TN
Are the nuts "handed", or are both sides righty tighty, lefty loosy?

Std thread direction.
 

Pro_GT_driver

GT Owner
Jun 23, 2010
131
Guys, when BigInch Blake and I were at our last car show, he showed me something disturbing on his GT. The driver side rear axle nut paint stripe did not align. This is a safety critical nut which holds the rear axle assembly together. When the final assembly person torqued these nuts a paint stripe was applied to the nut and to the axle. The theory being that if the two paint stripes maintained alignment, the nut (or bolt as these paint stripes were applied to bolt heads as well) was still properly torqued or tensioned.

It is fairly easy to check this on your car. If you have the optional BBS forged wheels you will need to remove the wheel to gain visual access to the nut, unless you can remove the center cap without removing the wheel. I have the standard wheels and if you remove the chromed triwing plastic cover to gain access to the wheel lug nuts you can see the axle nut and its striping.

While preparing my car for this year’s rally, I inspected my nuts and found a similar situation on the driver side. The two stripes were off by approximately 40 degrees, signifying loosening of the retaining nut. The passenger side was off just slightly and not nearly as much as the driver side. See pictures.View attachment 30306View attachment 30307

I would suggest looking at these nuts on your vehicle. As I stated, this is classified as a safety critical torque and the nuts should be torqued to 400 newton meters plus/minus 30 Nm. Ok, for those CGS challenged 295 ftlbs plus/minus 22 ftlbs. This is a big boy torque. My half inch torque wrench only goes to 150 ftlbs so I had to borrow a much larger three quarter drive wrench to torque the nuts back to spec.

Just an FYI to the ownership.


Indy GT
I had exactely the same issue, both paint stripes on driver side around 45° off. Passenger side also a tad, I don't remember how much. The nuts were retorqued last week to Ford recommended setting. Looks like they loosen with time as stated before, my car has 5000miles.
 
This must vary by car (and possibly usage). I have 05 1638 and have driven it about 3500 miles since purchase in June 2012. I just checked the axle nuts again this morning, and they have not moved since I got it. I don't know if they moved some time before I owned it and were retorqued, but it looks like the nuts are undisturbed.
 

Indy GT

Yea, I got one...too
Mark IV Lifetime
Jan 14, 2006
2,526
Greenwood, IN
Could this have anything to do with factory replaced control arms?
Nope.
Nor would it have anything to do with replacing the interior axle half shaft bolts as most of us owners have done or had done.
Just something to be aware of and check on a periodic basis.
When I torqued both nuts up to the 295 ft lbf limit the paint stripes aligned perfectly.
 

Vince H

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 23, 2012
2,417
Southern California
Kendall checked mine when we replaced the Goodyears for Bridgestones.
 

MTV8

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 24, 2010
1,017
Houston Texas
Also had to tighten mine. Could Loctite be used at these torque levels?