Rear Axle Nut Inspection Recommendation


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
 
Just checked mine today. Left rear has backed off about 1/4 turn. Other OK. 10k miles on the car.
 
right rear wheel loose...
 
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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!
 
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
 
I see a speck of dirt! Oh, sorry, it's on my PC screen.
 
Hey, my car is no garage queen. I detailed the wheel wells when I swapped rims and tires.
 
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 I wonder what car they were originally made for.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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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
 
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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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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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.