Fix a Drive Shaft...how much?

Like a dick, I got a mate of mine to fit a new gear box to my 88 Jetta! Today, the drive shaft came "undone"! It seems the nuts came lose. The bloke that towed me says its just case of maybe tapping a new thread and replacing the six bolts. He seems to think a tenner parts and fifty quid labour. What do you lot think? I pick it up tomorrow morning

Reply to
Ade Evans
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The 6 bolts came undone because they weren't tight in the first place. If they were on the driverside, check the tranny for damage. Otherwise, the threads should be fine, the missing bolts and washers are the problem :)

Reply to
Darryl

When the drivers side (left, where I live) axle came off my Scirocco some years back the repair was to go to VW and get six bolts and washers and bold the thing back on. The hard part was borrowing a car to go to VW. Actual repair took a half hour or so.

The guy who had worked on the car (clutch replacement) said "Oh, I guess I forgot to torque them."

- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leary

Yeah, that's what my friend said when my driverside came loose at 120 km/h (slow day)...three bolts slipped out and the washers splayed out like a ninja star and slice right through the tranny. Alas, the first tranny I rebuilt was doomed to live about 10 days. Moral of the story if you do the work with a friend: check his work.

Reply to
Darryl

Ow! Fortunately, I was doing about 30 mph (48 km/h) when mine came apart.

The couple of friends, and even my brother, I've worked on cars with we'd all come to an agreement very early on that "It's my car, I check everything." Since we'd established it as policy, (mostly) nobody too offense when we checked each others work. And the few times we caught something helped point up that doing so was a Good Idea.

- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leary

Just to keep everyone up to speed....

Got a call from the garage this morning...

Replacement Bolts 12 quid Labour for putting them in 40 quid Everything else on the car that they NEED to do £100!!

They HAD to replace the air filter, oil filter, oil, plugs, leads, anti freeze, rotor arm!! Apparently they didn't like the look of the gear knob but I managed to convince them to keep it!!

Total cost about 150....could've been a lot worse I guess

Reply to
Ade Evans

I dunno what the deal is with those CV joint bolts, they like to work loose. I've seen it happen twice, first on my old Scirocco (caught it before anything bad happened) and then on Michele's Corrado - a professional shop had put in a new inner CV and the bolts came loose on a trip to North Carolina (owie... but her dad fixed it OK, although he did have to call me to ask me what the hell tool he needed. Seeing as he has three vintage Mustangs and an old Toyota Cressida, I can understand his confusion.) I always put lots of grunt on those bolts now.

nate

Reply to
Nate Nagel

Jim B.

Reply to
jimbehning

My first Scirocco the passenger (right) side ones kept coming out. I took it back to the shop a couple of times, but finally just resigned myself to the problem and I'd tighten them every 1000 miles or so and they'd come loose again. What finally seemed to fix the problem was to buy six new bolts and get a different garrage to put them in. They reported that they torqued them in "star*" fashion, working up to the correct torque in steps. I think he said he did it five foot/pounds per go around. I don't know if I really needed the six new bolts, but the new garage insisted and I figured if I was going to complain about it later, I'd better not hand them the excuse that I didn't let them to the job their way. At it happend, in over

10K miles, they never came loose again.

- Bill

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  • "star" fashion. I don't know what this is really called, but it means that if you numbered the bolts 1 to 6 around the shaft, you tighten 1, 3, 5 to 5 f/p, then 2, 4, 6 to 5 f/p, then 1, 3, 5 to 10 f/p and so on until they're all up to whatever the correct level is. I had used the star approach myself, but only went around, as I recall, twice and didn't have a torque wrench.
Reply to
Bill Leary

Did they use grease? If so, grease affects the torque numbers (IIRC). Ever since my driveaxle failure, I crank them on as hard as I can by hand, going clockwise twice. Even with the car in neutral I still find it annoying having to turn the wheel axle that much (I use a clean rag on the discs).

Darryl.

Reply to
Darryl

I don't think so. The first time it happened, It took the loose ones out and examined them. They seemed just a bit oily.

Can't say. I'd never herd of using grease or oil to lube a bolt you're trying to put in.

Oh, I just jacked it up and turned the tire itself. And yeah, even only going around twice (which is what I think I did) it was annoying. Worse was the time I couldn't jack it up (I was in a parking lot at work) and I had to rotate the shaft by moving the car.

- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leary

Jim B.

Reply to
jimbehning

I lost you there. I don't get what you mean by "when they try break" ?

I've never broken a bolt using a torque wrench. Well, except for that time I mis-read 10f/p as 20f/p.

- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leary

Jim B.

Reply to
jimbehning

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