Halfshafts falling off - WTF??

[Nic01101011]

just put a new diff in today.. didnt use loctite.. fuck!

[E30FourLife]

Sorry for an old thread bump. Same thing happened to me tonight but I caught it. I noticed my diff was leaking a tiny bit everyday for the past few days. Threw it up on the lift at work and my driverside rear halfshaft was almost all the way out! I hit it back in and drove it home, I'll tighten all the bolts up at work on monday - Didnt have the time tonight. I wont be driving it anywhere until then.

EDIT:

Now that I look at some pictures of diffs, looks like my output flange is whats coming out of the diff with the halfshaft attached to it. Wonder what holds the output flange in the diff? Is it a snap ring or something? Whats the easiest way to fix that?

THanks

[E30FourLife]

Sorry for an old thread bump. Same thing happened to me tonight but I caught it. I noticed my diff was leaking a tiny bit everyday for the past few days. Threw it up on the lift at work and my driverside rear halfshaft was almost all the way out! I hit it back in and drove it home, I'll tighten all the bolts up at work on monday - Didnt have the time tonight. I wont be driving it anywhere until then.

[Dirtsquirt]

Be sure that the bolts are the right length for the diff flange... Happened to me in the bad part of town about 2am a few years ago

Found out I had an early 325e flange on my diff, the 'i' bolts were shorter and didn't completely engage all of the threads.

[erik325i]

Same thing happened to my brother's car. Fell off, broke the Mcoupe diff cover, and snagged the e-brake cable causing the wheel to lock up.

Erik

[thornado327i]

Ok. Loctite it is.

Now - any ideas on the thumping noise?

After few more tests, I'm prettu sure it's the halfshaft - either it's bent or one on the joints is not working properly...

[Collin]

use some loctite.

+1 for the red stuff, I have a free sample tube I'll sell you.

torque wrench

+2

[thornado327i]

Do you still have the little brackets that go in between two of the bolts? (3 on each shaft) if those are not in place the bolts WILL back out, something about those little brackets help the bolts from loosening themselves

Yeah, still got'em. Except one because of one bolt missing, I decided not to leave one hanging. Come to think of it, a bolt without that bracket might be a bit too long, and maybe that makes the noise...

[MacBudd541]

Do you still have the little brackets that go in between two of the bolts? (3 on each shaft) if those are not in place the bolts WILL back out, something about those little brackets help the bolts from loosening themselves.

[scabzzzz]

My left halfshaft fell out once too.. Weird. Never heard of it happening to anyone else in the E30 scene until now.

I was driving, not hard, just cruising and huge thumps came from the rear. It bent 1 bolt like the OP's. Had it towed to Treehouse, and fixed it there. Was a bitch. Made me super late for work.

[asubimmer]

same thing happened to me and it shattered the rear diff cover.

Loctite

+1

[thornado327i]

at what speed where you traveling when the half shaft fell off? (cruising the neighborhood or flossin the highway?) cause at highways speeds that loose half shaft acts like a wild mace down there

Was on my way home - just 2 blocks away. Speed - something around 40mph.

Noticed yesterday, that the one bent bolt left me a present - a fucked up thread in the diff flange... Things just get better and better.

About the noise - the thumping is similiar to old laundry machines starting to swirl. thump-thump-thump... I really don't know how else to describe it...

[2002maniac]

same thing happened to me and it shattered the rear diff cover.

Loctite

[Gnarles]

This happened to me a few months ago. Driving down the road and hear a big clunk. Get out and the driverside halfshaft was hanging down below the diff. Most of the bolts were still in the halfshaft flange, but had just backed themselves out. Scared the crap out of me...

So I bought all new bolts and made sure they were torqued appropriately and locktited down when I reinstalled the halfshaft.

[LEANE30]

take a close look at your diff mount, look for any hairline cracks that may be forming. you don't want to learn it's toast the hard way.

it seems that only the driver's side half does that on occasion, i think it's just the direction that the wheel spins that it has that tendency. ..i've only experienced it with my lsd, never had the issue with any of the opens. - blue locktite. use it. even if it's torqued down, it can do it, i think it only happens if on installation there is any oil residue on the threads (highly possible) - so whatever you do, on reinstallation, hit all the threads with brakecleaner first

as far as that noise your discribing, i can't make a assertion based on just the info given - at what speed where you traveling when the half shaft fell off? (cruising the neighborhood or flossin the highway?) cause at highways speeds that loose half shaft acts like a wild mace down there