Hi all, I've got a stock 2002 C5 Z06 with just a couple cooling and brake mods for track days. I noticed what I thought was diff chatter at low speeds but also had heard about the loose axle nuts, so thought I would tighten those up, in case they were contributing to the noise. I loosened up the nuts (driver's side loosened way too easily, probably 50 ft lbs, but the passenger side was really tight) and cleaned the threads tried to pack some grease in the spline area and then tightened the nuts back down to 118 ft lbs with some red loctite. However, after I let the loctite set-up and went on a test drive, the axle splines started popping! Now I know what that sounds like, and the car definitely wasn't making the sound before. It seemed to only pop when crawling around in 1st gear and reverse.I tried the tightening procedure one more time, to no avail. Over this past weekend I tried it again but sprayed a ton of motorcycle chain lube and white lithium grease into the splines. It seems better, but it still does it when I go in reverse up an incline (doesn't really do it when I'm backing downhill or on flat ground).

Anyway, my question is, does any one have any more tips for a quick fix on this? Should I just try to lube them up yet again? Any recommendations on specific types/brands of lube? I'm not going to remove or replace my axles just to get rid of the rust on the splines.

In the end, I'm glad I tightened the nuts up, as the driver's side was way too loose, but I'm getting frustrated with this, especially since it didn't start making any noise until AFTER I tightened the axle nuts. .....typical.

Thanks.

 

Did you knock the shafts back and lube the inside?

I used spray white lithium and put it on the inside and outside of the bearing directly into the splines. It definately helps for a while.

My car isn't slammed so I can do it on the ground. It takes 10 minutes to get out the impact, pull the centers, buzz off the nuts, spray spray, and buzz them back on. I don't torque them just pound them on with a decent air impact.

 

No, I did not knock them back, I was just filling the area behind the nut with grease. Can you just knock the axles back with a hammer with the car on the ground? I wasn't sure how much they were free to move into the differential.

 

Check out the ultimate diy sticky thread, post #32 if I recall correctly, called popping axle fix

 

Yeah i read about it on the forums here someplace. But yeah if you back the nut off an inch you can just tap it a few times with a bigish hammer and it will freeup from all the rust. Then you can just reach into the inside and hit it with lithium grease with the little red tube from the back of the car, quick and easy. No need to pull the wheels/tires. The cv's have a lot of give and let stuff to slide around quite a bit.

 

 

If they are really corroded and giving you all that much issue, I recommend pulling the prop shaft out of the rear bearing and properly cleaning the splines and inside of the bearing shaft and then properly lubricating it with a MOLY type grease.

Have you checked the rear bearings for wear?? Jack the rear wheels off the ground, Grab the wheel at the 12:00-06:00 position & 03:00 09:00 position and push pull. If there is any slop, that bearing is bad or going bad. Should be little or no slop.

You can do the same thing to the front bearings but only at the 12:00-06:00 positions.

Bill

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to just follow post #32 in the diy sticky and try to knock the axles back towards the diff and get some more lube in there. Hopefully that fixes it. The car only has 57k miles on it and was clearly mostly garaged before I bought it and started DDing it down here in FL, so I'm hoping there isn't too much rust in there. I'll also check the wheel bearings while I'm at it.

I still find it strange that it never made the noise until AFTER I removed and then tightened the axle nuts..........

 

This should be helpful:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ix-needed.html