Bad day in '02dom

[02for2]

Well, finished all my upgrades about a week ago on my 'new' '76 auto and have put about 200 nice, trouble-free miles on it.

Today, I ran some errands and on the way home, a block and a half away in fact, I stopped for a car which was picking someone up. I was on an incline heading up and when I gave the car some gas, the car moved forward about 5 feet. Then, I heard a 'thunk' and the motor rev'd. I stopped and looked underneath to find that the p-side halfshaft had separated from the stub axle. 2 bolts had been sheared off and the rest seem to be OK. Now, when rebuilding, I did have these apart to do the cv boots and the axle bearings, but reassembled them properly and torqued them to the requisite 25 ft. lbs.

I pushed the car the block and a half to my garage. Tomorrow, I will raise the rear and do a more thorough inspection. I'm suspecting that the stub axel will be stripped, and i'll go over all the bearings, flange etc., but is there any reason to suspect any damage to the halfshaft or diff? It's very disappointing to have a breakdown so soon after getting it back on the road, but at least it's not January with a foot of snow on the ground.

Cheers!

[TobyB]

Those do tend to come loose from time to time.

I think I overtorque mine significantly- that seems to help.

You'll probably get lucky and just need to replace the sheared ones and tighten 'em up.

Now that I think about it, I should check mine- I swapped the diff

a while back and have not done so...

t

[c.d.iesel]

using "Original" BMW high strength screws ?

clean thread holes or new nuts with Blue Thread Locker?

[jgerock]

Make sure the curved metal plates are under the head of the CV joint bolts. They are used to equalize the pressure against the boot "cup".

The nuts for the CV joints on my car were slightly loose when I bought it. The same thing happened on my VW Beetle after driving it for 5+ years since the total rebuild.

[02for2]

OK UPDATE

Raised the car today and found that the 4 bolts which didn't shear seem to have just turned out in just 200 miles - unbelievable considering they were properly torqued. The two which did shear (side-by-side) appear to be the last two to work loose and the halfshaft torque was too much for just the 2 of them, but I was able to extract the nubs by tapping them with the edge of a cold chisel and small ballpeen until enough thread was exposed to grab them with a needlenose and turn them out.

Upon close inspection, the taps in the stub axle are all OK and a bolt screws into each one with no problem, they do not appear elongated, cross threaded os loose.

I'm going to replace all 24 of them (both sides) with fresh OEM Fillister Bolts which presumably have better thread depth being new and I will torque them and use locktite to hopefully prevent this from happening in the future.

Thanks to all who replied.

Cheers!

[jgerock]

IIRC, there are two versions of hardware (and different length bolts) for the CV joints on the 2002s:

1) Socket-head bolts that thread into the stub and drive axles. My VW has this type of connection.

2) Socket-heat bolts that have locknuts on the outer portion of the stub and drive axles. My tii has this type.

[02for2]

IIRC, there are two versions of hardware (and different length bolts) for the CV joints on the 2002s:

1) Socket-head bolts that thread into the stub and drive axles. My VW has this type of connection.

2) Socket-heat bolts that have locknuts on the outer portion of the stub and drive axles. My tii has this type.

Correct! The allen head bolts come as M8X50 or M8X60. Mine screw directly into the stub axle/drive flanges and uses the M8X60 bolts.

I'll go with new ones, locktited and if that doesn't work, I'll try to get longer bolts so I can add a locknut to them - you can rotate the wheel so that the nut would be accessible for install/removal one-at-a-time.

Cheers!

[jgerock]

IF you haven't replaced your boots in a while, you can help them last a little longer by cleaning them and applying some kind of treatment on them. I used Griot's Rubber cleaner and then applied some of their vinyl and rubber dressing. Makes them look nicer too.

Here are the internals of one CV joint (picture taken in Marshall's shop)