Why are my CV joint bolts coming out?

[Lars 0]

I have not touched these bolts at all, yet 2 have come loose. These are on the left rear outer joint. Wish it would have shown up on the way home at lunch then I could have taken care of it, but no, it starts clanking on the way back to work. One was barely loose, the other was about 1/2 inch out.

I'm hoping I have an allen wrench here at work that will fit it and I can tighten it to limp it home. What size are those bolts?

[scoyote 6]

I think they are 6mm-cinch them up-i've had mine loosen as well so it's not that uncommon----scoyote

[Lars 0]

Cool. I did find one at work that was able to get them good enough to get home, but they aren't tight enough yet. The clanking is still there though, I'm thinking the rear driveshaft-diff bolts might have loosened or something, or the diff is not straight. Got some work to do tonight.

[c.d.iesel 132]

...see next

[c.d.iesel 132]

to all with wobbly axle shafts:

if you are missing the load spreading

plates under the heads of the screws, and reuse

old lock nuts, use improper or worn screws,

and assemble 'dirty', and improper tightening

you will come apart

[rover1 33]

Alright c.d. iesel good advice as usual. my vehicle has that problem as well but why dont all the allen bolts come loose and why is it always the right rear outer cv boot retaining bolts? i have talk to other owners and they say the left rear outers come loose. in my case my vehicle has a 390 lsd so i assume the R/R has most of the diff locking function of the diff so naturely the R/R wants to work its way loose although i hate to assume anything or guess.

[Lars 0]

Ok, so I tighten it all up. The load balancer plates are there. Never touched the CV joints before now. Here's the weird thing (I should get a picture), there are no nuts on the outer that the diagram shows should be there. Maybe I don't have stock CVs. Mine just have the bolt going into the plates which must be threaded.

Now the good thing is none of them broke and the clanking noise is gone. Also I think I figured out where the noise was coming from. Last week I had worked on the exhaust manifold to stop an oil leak at the cylinder 1 top stud (which it has stopped). When I did it, it knocked the transmission exhaust bracket out of place and causing the exhaust pipe to move into another position. This I believe caused the exhaust to hit something on the half shaft while driving after hitting a bump yesterday. So far today I've not had any issue. But I did find that my left rear wheel drags at a certain point on the drum, I may have to replace the drum.