Hmmm, a few minutes ago, about a half mile from home as I very slowly turned a corner, there was a loud clunk, followed by some nasty sounding metal pounding and no forward motion.

I got it home and found that one of the axles had come loose from the differential. It bent one bolt, no other harm, since I had an extra set of axles and bolts, but... the workshop manual only indicates 26ftlb or 22Nm for the torque on these 6 bolts. That seems awfully low, but I did it. If someone knows that these should be tighter, please let me know. I was lucky it was not at 70 mph or I could have done some real damage.

Thanks
Rod

 

Rod, Your looking at the wrong torque!!! Per my tech Spec Book it should be 81nm or 60 ft lbs. I just swapped my rear axles last week and that's what I torqued mine to.

Jim Mayzurk
93 GTS 5-spd

 

Good, It sure seemed too low, I'll put it back up and hit it again.

Thanks
Rod

 

Rod
Which 928????

 

The 82, my daily driver. Don't worry, the 87 that you know and love was home relaxing in the garage, dreaming of the twin screw.

Rod

 

Hmm
The 82.....was it the rear end side or the wheel side.......

 

Driver side on the rear. I think I was very lucky that it didn't tear up anything. A high speed spinning axle, completely loose from the differential, flopping around as the wheel turned, could have been very bad.

Rod

 

Rod
The reason I ask is the later cars have the welded axle on the wheel-hub side that the early cars do not.....

 

I have had this problem on my 81 a few times, I know I torqued them down as well.
My fix was SS lock wiring the bolts together to prevent them from backing out.

 

Just changed my drivers side out the past week, will keep an ever sharper eye on them now! thanks for the heads up!

 

I retorqued both sides last night and they both needed it. I'll keep an eye on them and if they loosen, I'll try locktite and see if that helps.

It was a bit disconcerting, I have to admit. On the way home, behind my son in the truck, I was wondering if I was going to have to get a late model 5 speed to replace a broken one.

Rod

 

I know this is an old post but have been thinking about this for a while anyway...

I also own a 914 and they have a Schnorr washer (ribbed washer) that is supposed to help keep the bolts tight. I was a bit surprised that there weren't any on the 928 as the guys on the 914 forum make a big deal about putting new ones on each time the axle bolts are removed.

Can anyone think of a disadvantage to using them on the 928? I was thinking of adding them before bolting up my tranny.

 

No disadvantage that I'm aware of. The few 928's Ive done axle work on (only S4's and GTS's) also have a "link" washer assembly that goes to the next bolt. So you have three links for the six bolts. I've never seen these come loose when torqued correctly, but your washers will also work. But I think it's an either/or situation, not both.