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Self-loosening Axle Nut?

M

Matty K

Hard-core CEG'er
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
1,192
Location
Aliso Viejo, CA
Hello folks,

Weird problem. The axle nut on my passenger side wheel keeps coming loose; not enough to make the car undriveable or anything, but enough that I can get some top-to-bottom play when the wheel is in the air (and no, it's not a ball joint; as soon as I retighten the nut, the problem is fixed). We've tried both the Ford one time use nut, and the aftermarket re-usable kind, both times put on with an impact gun. Both times they came loose.

Any ideas? I tried searching, but "nut" is too short for the engine to read.
 
Are you torquing the nut properly when installing it? Use the proper torque wrench and tighten it to spec, don't just hit it w/ the impact, most impact guns won't put down enough torque.
 
causes:
you aren't putting 108-112 FOOT pounds of torque on it.
your hub stub's threads are tweaked or burred and the nut is slipping off
 
there is a chance that the hub is worn out, ask csvt1214 about it. swapped a front hub on his car and not even three days later is was loose again and I did torque the hell out of it
 
Thats what I wrote???!?!??
108-112

uh.. wait.. I was thinking of WHEEL STUDS.. (as in.. the four lug nuts..) DAMN! lol
 
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Ray said:
Thats what I wrote???!?!??
108-112

uh.. wait.. I was thinking of WHEEL STUDS.. (as in.. the four lug nuts..) DAMN! lol
Click to expand...

LOL, ok, so, 208 ft/lbs? I guess the first step is to tighten it again, and if it breaks free, examine the hub for damage. As always, thanks guys.
 
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haha.. yeah.. 208 ft/lbs (which is abnormally high for an axle, ask around..) but REQUIRED.
 
I went through this for about 6 months earlier this year.

Replaced just the axle nut with a new Ford nut, didn't help.
New hub and nut (again), didn't help.
New hub, nut and axle, finally fixed it.

Every single time, it was torqued to proper spec, and within 1 day, it was loose again. Let's just say, I ate up a lot of wheel bearings. If you don't replace the bearing after all this, expect it to happen again soon.
 
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Buy a new axle nut. They are TTY and one time use only. Though there are some folks that have reused them, they were not designed that way.
 
That's a good point. a FAILED/FAILING bearing can allow play in the rotor/hub.. which can back the nut off.
 
69Boss302 said:
Buy a new axle nut. They are TTY and one time use only. Though there are some folks that have reused them, they were not designed that way.
Click to expand...

As I stated, we used a Ford (TTY) nut, and an aftermarket (resuable) nut.

I've been getting noise from that side for a while, even though the bearing's not that old... maybe a new hub is in order. What's the best route for that?
 
As in.. purchasing one?


Steve @ Tousley Ford (White Bear Lake, MN) or Bill Jenkins at TeamFord (Las Vegas)

Bill's cheaper on some stuff, Steve on others. Check out the "Duratec Maintenance" forum, under the "read first" thread for contact/discount on both.
 
Matty K said:
As I stated, we used a Ford (TTY) nut, and an aftermarket (resuable) nut.

I've been getting noise from that side for a while, even though the bearing's not that old... maybe a new hub is in order. What's the best route for that?
Click to expand...

I never claimed to have read all of the original post, ya know. :crazy:
 
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