Rear Axle Nut Inspection Recommendation


sahlman

Ford GT Team Alumni
Jul 21, 2011
329
Verona, WI
All good Indy, Ralphie and Specracer. Glad to help a little. Another good topic you have helped your fellow owners on. Look forward to hanging out with you guys next week.

Scott
 

NavyVet

GT Owner
Nov 27, 2012
48
Scottsdale, AZ
Just checked mine today. Left rear has backed off about 1/4 turn. Other OK. 10k miles on the car.
 

Simon

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Feb 19, 2013
1,232
Houston
right rear wheel loose...
 
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1434gt

GT Owner
Aug 29, 2006
233
is ur car a awd car?
Had the wheels off yesterday and the witness marks on the left rear axle nut were off. The other three corners were fine. Thanks for the heads up on this issue!
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
is ur car a awd car?

"Damn it Jim, I'm a doctor, not a mechanic."

As Ralphie and Sahlman pointed out, the front hubs are the same as the rears, minus the axle shafts. Here is a picture for those who have not seen the front hubs:

DSC_8090.jpg
 

Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
I see a speck of dirt! Oh, sorry, it's on my PC screen.
 

Sinovac

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 18, 2006
5,832
Largo, Florida
Hey, my car is no garage queen. I detailed the wheel wells when I swapped rims and tires.
 

Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
And a fine obsessive compulsive job you did! :lol Interesting that the front rotors are splined. I wonder what car they were originally made for. The calipers came from the Aston Martin parts bin. Maybe the rotors as well? Or maybe not, since they're kind of small for any recent AM. Maybe the mythical Vanquish 4WD. :)
 
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SSRob

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Oct 9, 2012
542
Oklahoma
My car is at Shelby's and they did a go over on the whole car. My drivers side axle nut was hand tight. :eek:eek:eek:eek:eek:eek:eek:eek:eek
 

standj

GT OWNER
Mark IV Lifetime
Apr 23, 2007
755
Wyoming
Just pulled my driver side rear tire on my 2005 with 3100 miles and the axle nut had moved a 1/4 turn. Will pull the passenger tire today.

John
 
I haven't had any problems with my axle nuts moving, after almost 19,000 miles they are right where they were when the factory put them on and marked them.

However: why don't those of you who have/are having problems with their movement retorque and then punch lock them? You only need to do one spot, it doesn't hurt engaged thread strength and if it's ever necessary to get the nut off, it can be undone by a little shallow drilling.

And by the way: why are the nuts loosening? Is it because 1) they weren't properly torqued to begin with, or 2) there is slop in the axle splines allowing movement? They shouldn't be loosening if properly tightened and there is no movement between the parts.
 
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Xcentric

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 9, 2012
5,213
Myakka City, Florida
Just to add to the knowledge database, my car's rear axle nuts are right on the index marks at 13k miles.

Also, control arm bushings and ball joint seals are fine.
 

Derry

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Apr 5, 2006
341
buffalo, NY
Mine were rotated about 90 degrees from where they should be. I wonder if it is related to Whipple and tracking vs normal street use? 6700 miles, third set of tires :)
 
It's an interesting problem ...

No one has answered either of the two questions I asked earlier:

After retorquing, do the nuts stay tightened? If they do, that suggests they may not have been properly torqued initially.

If not, is the hub loose on the splines?
 

RALPHIE

GT Owner
Mar 1, 2007
7,278
It's an interesting problem ...

No one has answered either of the two questions I asked earlier:

After retorquing, do the nuts stay tightened? If they do, that suggests they may not have been properly torqued initially.

If not, is the hub loose on the splines?

The hub is fixed in the hub carrier, and will not move. However if the nut came loose the halfshaft might move (or slide) with relation to the female splines of the hub.
 
It seems to me that the situation is the opposite: if the splines of the halfshaft are at all loose in the splines of the hub, the nut can not stay tight, because acceleration and deceleration will cause the hub to rotate back and forth on the halfshaft splines. The result will be to loosen the nut eventually, regardless of how well it has been torqued.

This is a common problem in motorcycle transmission mainshaft coupling to the front chain sprocket, where the mainshaft is splined to the sprocket and there is a large nut holding the sprocket on, usually with a dedicated lock washer that is peened into the splines of the mainshaft and bent over one or two flats of the nut preventing it from turning. Despite that, these are often found with the nut and lockwasher in place but the sprocket loose as a result of wear between the splines of the two components.
 

MTV8

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Jul 24, 2010
1,017
Houston Texas
Mine were rotated about 90 degrees from where they should be. I wonder if it is related to Whipple and tracking vs normal street use? 6700 miles, third set of tires :)

That is an impressive mileage to tire ratio.