A few months ago, one of the bolts holding the rear hub end cap on the axle of the Dana 80 rear end of my truck broke off, so I easy-out-ed the stub, replaced the bolt and tightened the others. Yesterday at a rest stop I noticed oil radiating out from the hub all over the wheel, and some on the tire. Pulled the decorative cover, and found all the bolts to be loose. Tightened 'em down and checked the other side, and they were all loose, too. Is this common ?? I don't recall seeing any mention of it in the past.

Lar.

 

It would seem like something is lose inside the diff.
Get the rear end on jack stands , put in gear to spin wheels and use a stethescope or a long screwdrive and place the working end on the diff. and the handle end against your ear and try to listen for a growl or worse , vibration going through axials and losening the bolts .

 

Put them back in with Red Loctite. works on my Jeep.

 

What are you torqueing them to? According the Haynes manual, its 90 ft.-lbs. on them.

 

We've had some trouble on like this on a couple of big trucks at work, one of them being mine. The problem is that the studs become loose due to taking of the axle flange for wheel seal replacement, etc. The solution was to remove the studs and clean the holes then re-tighten them. So i would think that maybe you could remove all of the bolts, clean out the holes and reinstall to see if that helps.

 

I'm sure that 90 ft\lbs will snap those 7/16" bolts, I'd recheck that figure.

 

Loctite Red them in place.

 

I agree. I'll check what the torque should be - 90# is way too high, then loctite 'em in. Thanks all.

Lar.

 

The Haynes manual I have shows 90 ft/lbs for the flange bolts as well.

 

It is 90ft/lbs. I've had mine apart several times.

Adam

 

The bolts on my truck are a grade 9 bolt (7 lines on the head), so they will take a bit of torque. Had my passenger side apart a couple times, bolts are still good.

 

My buddy has this problem on his 99, we have tried just about everything, including red loctite. All that he does is check them once a week.

Rick