LOOSE CV JOINT BOLTS (permanent fix ?)

[honerboys]

this was the second time these bolts had come loose on the 85 - both times it was the same spot ..drivers side inner joint - the last time they all had backed out leaving my son stranded on his way to school - i figured they had loosened over many years and i had never checked them - so i torqued them down after adding grease and called it good - well now it's less than a year later and i just happened to look under there and three of them had already backed themselves out and the other three had loosened enough to let the joint spray grease all over the place - so this time i'm trying something that i had heard of but never seen done - i drilled through the six bolts and ran wire through them - the hardest part was stitching all the bolts together as the clearance between the bolt head and the boot clamp is small - anyway i'm hoping this is a permanent fix for this problem - i've had no problems of this sort on the other three joints but if they start acting up they'll get the same treatment

[honerboys]

oops forgot the picture

[emoore924]

Known problem. Several kits out there to remedy. Ideola's garage has a good one.

I'd be a little worried the drilling weakened the bolt head and you'd risk breaking it off if it didn't want to come out. May not be an issue though. I guess you wouldn't know unless it happens...

[Gawernator]

I ended up torquing them down pretty tight with my wrench and used some loctite on the lower half of the threads, has been holding up perfectly.

[968 GUY]

Biggest thing is to make sure the grease it off the bolts and out of the bolt holes. Yes there are better ways to keep the bolts from backing out, but ensuring the threads are clean, using a decent locking compound and torquing correctly and rechecking will probably work just fine.

[968 GUY]

BTW honer, although your bolts will probably barely loosen, the pic shows at least one incorrectly wired bolt. They should all have the wire pulling to tighten against the next if one loosens. S Sorry but its the aerospace and sub mess showing.

[Gawernator]

Truth! I ran one old bolt in and out of all the threads a couple times to get most of the grease out of the holes. Used 12.9 bolts from pelican with pink loctite and check them once a month.

[Stephen03]

Got to love aviation... especially when you're lockwiring upside down,working through a mirror with a flashlight with weak batteries.

Originally Posted by 968 GUY

BTW honer, although your bolts will probably barely loosen, the pic shows at least one incorrectly wired bolt. They should all have the wire pulling to tighten against the next if one loosens. S Sorry but its the aerospace and sub mess showing.

[honerboys]

968guy - yea i saw and thought the same thing - the problem is there's so little clearance between the bolt head and boot i couldn't feed the wire that way - and i'd have to torque it down way too tight to spin the hole to where i could - i just used some wire i had here - it's pretty thick - maybe some thinner hardened wire would work better - something like a guitar string - i know i could check them more often but it's actually mostly driven by my son

[gtroth]

I never understood why these back out for some and not for others.
When I replaced my axles ~80K mi ago, I cleaned up the threads, applied anti seize to the new cheeseheads that came with the axles, and torqued to spec. I check them from time to time while I'm under there, and they're not going anywhere. No idea why I have been so lucky.
New bolts?

[Gawernator]

Maybe, 12.9 grade bolts by Febi sold by PP, work great..

[968 GUY]

Honer, just an observation, as I said, it wouldn't loosen much even if it did.

There was a juke list of tools to work on some of the aircraft engines included a strap on mechanical third arm and a ratchet with a chin rest.

[Tcrate]

Stage eight bolts are expensive but they will keep those in place.

[Gawernator]

Overkill, IMO