Hello Steve, saw your message,
>
> Well Joe,
>
> On the autocross, in the middle of my second lap, the studs that hold
>the half shaft/brake assemblies to the left rear wheel sheared out. The
You must be talking about the six studs that hold the rear hub assembly
to the aluminum swing-arm, correct ?
>left wheel came off at about 30mph or so and the left rear squatted down
>and the right front corner came up about 4 feet off the ground. Some
>watching thought that
>I was going to flip the car.
>
> Also, when the wheel came off, with the outer half shaft still attached,
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is why I made the above guess, as the half-shaft would separate at
the splines, pulling apart the little gaiter at the slip-joint.
This sounds like bad news indeed, I'm glad no one was hurt, and that you
are already making repair plans.
It just reminded me, that of all the TR-6 and 250 cars that I have had
the rear hub assemblies out of (all 4 !) I have found at least one of
those six studs to be stripped out of the aluminum, and on one car,
Three out of the six were stripped. Since these are not that large to
start with, over the years, stress and occasional DPO over-torquing
and the galling of the aluminum / steel mix look like they can com-
bine to weaken this critical spot. The 4A-IRS cars would also be can-
didates for this, of course.
I don't have an answer, this is just an observation from my limited
experience; it just looks like a place that should be double-checked
whenever the time comes to pull or inspect a rear hub. The stripped
holes in the swing-arm should be repaired with a Heli-coil insert,
to avoid re-tapping to a larger size, with the problems that would
bring up, it seems to me.
Good luck,
Tom Tweed
SW Ohio
|