Loose nuts

[STL. SHO]

My front axle nuts keep backing off WTF, should there be lock washers on them, mine has one washer about 1/4 in. thick and the nut. There only four months old or so.

 

[rbruso]

Have they been on and off a couple of times? They're staked to keep from backing off, but that wears out after a few torque cycles.

I think the accepted torque is about 15% more than you can generate with an 18" breaker bar

 

[K-Dawg]

Get some new nuts.

 

[1993MTXSHO]

Yeah they're supposed to be replaced every time you take them off, although red lock tite would probably hold them on.

 

[HotRodKid]

must ...
bite...
tongue...

if this was any normal nut, i would say take it off and smash it with a hammer, but since they are axle nuts i would suggest just buying new ones.

Any parts store sells them, even if they dont sell taurus specific units you SHOULD be able to take an old one in and root around in their stock for an exact match off something else.

 

[hawkeye18]

You really need to use new nuts. As another poster said, if it were any other nut, it wouldn't be a big deal, but this is the nut that basically holds your car together. If it backs off, the entire front suspension comes apart. This is, as you might surmise, bad. The nuts are an oval shape to prevent their backing off, but they have obviously lost that property. They do that when you remove them. This is why you can't reuse them.

 

[jonheese]

You really need to use new nuts. As another poster said, if it were any other nut, it wouldn't be a big deal, but this is the nut that basically holds your car together. If it backs off, the entire front suspension comes apart. This is, as you might surmise, bad. The nuts are an oval shape to prevent their backing off, but they have obviously lost that property. They do that when you remove them. This is why you can't reuse them.

Ummm... Not quite. The lower control arm/ball joint holds the bottom of the knuckle and strut/strut mount holds the top. The tie rod keeps the knuckle from rotating and the sway bar (through its mounts) limits vertical travel. The axles nuts hold the axles in the hubs, which is important if you actually want to get the engine torque into the wheels, but nothing will "fall apart" if the nut comes off.

Case in point, I've rolled my engine-less car around with no halfshafts in it, and the suspension works fine as a roller without those nuts.

Edit: Also consider the tensile strength of the halfshafts. Ever held one at each end and tried to "stretch" it? I'm sure you see my point there. Ignoring that, and assuming that the axle was a hard, unstretchable arm, consider that the halfshaft is held in the transmission by a circlip, and the removal procedure is "give it a quick hard pull". Can you imagine how many "quick hard pulls" the suspension would give it during the course of normal suspension travel?

But you are correct that it is a very important nut (hence its size and the care taken to make sure it never backs out), because without it, the axles can come unengaged from the hubs, and the car will no longer "go".

 

[Off Road SHO]

Those nuts ARE very important. They keep the double tapered roller bearing of the hubs tight. When the axle nut loosens, the roller bearing are not held in the correct plane with the bearing's races, and that will lead to premature bearing wear. That double roller bearing is not doing it's job until that axle nut is tight.

Tom

 

[jonheese]

Very good point, Tom. Forgot about that aspect too.

 

[spazmoid]

Any idea of the size socket needed for this nut?

 

[hawkeye18]

I wanna say 22mm?

 

[Ishodu]

The issue could also be the bearing itself going bad. I have seen this before. Best to check it for play as well.

 

[platoribs]

I wanna say 32mm?

Fixed!:wave:

 

[yamahaSHO]

They always back off on me when I torque them to spec with a torque wrech, so now I just crank them down. You'd really have to try to strip them. Using new hardware every time I take these off is just not plausible for me as when I'm actually driving the car (status), they can removed quite often.

I do replace them, just not every time they're off.

I wanna say 30mm?

Fixed!:wave:

 

[kevinspann]

The nut is 30mm.

 

[frosho]

I've seen both 29mm and 30mm.

 

[89SHOMAN666]

Double nut them using a second axle nut as a jam-nut. It will prevent them from backing off.

My 2 cents.

 

[jonheese]

I've seen both 29mm and 30mm.

I have too. My '95 had one size (forget which) and my '90 had the other.

 

[SHO1]

Same here, don't remember the sizes w/o going to look at sockets I bought, but I had a diff '89's that had diff sizes.

 

[intimdatr]

i have a 92 and mine was a 30mm which i rent from autozone for free i might add.