shelbyelite
PERMANENTLY BANNED
- May 10, 2007
- 1
Apparent Transmission Fluid Leak
- Thread starter Magic
- Start date
Got a boit coming by overnight express mail from Shelby, have an appointment with Larry Leonhardt (mechanic at Cook Ford) as recommended by THamonGT and my fingers crossed that this takes care of it so as to make the Texas Mile this weekend! :thumbsup
Thanks for everyone's help from the GT Forum family! :banana:banana
Thanks for everyone's help from the GT Forum family! :banana:banana
shelbyelite
PERMANENTLY BANNED
- May 10, 2007
- 1
BlackICE
GT Owner
Great news. I hope you get to do the mile and have some good safe and fast runs.
Please post a photo of the failed half shaft bolts. This would be the 1st documented failure of the Ford's final version of bolts out of 1000s of them on the road. No comparisons can be made with the Accufab bolts since the installed base is much less, at best a 100 to 200 is my guess.
BlackICE
GT Owner
I think high end specialty shops like your would, but the vast majority of owners go to a Ford dealer that's why I am guessing the numbers are what I said. John could give us the real count.
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shelbyelite
PERMANENTLY BANNED
- May 10, 2007
- 1
I know of a a couple other people that have had the upgraded axle bolts break, although they were modified cars. Gary's car is mostly stock other than exhaust, and Bridgestone tires.
Wwabbit
GT Owner
Magic - A couple of things you can do during your fix that will be handy for many of us to know going forward. 1)Can you get some pics of the heads of the 6 coupling bolts before they are removed? Look carefully at the paint marks. This could be important to verify (a)if the inner bolts were actually ever changed, (b)if they were changed, did a Ford shop repaint the marks. 2)Pics of the inner washer when removed; is it original (black), Ford fix AA (silver), or Ford fix BA (black with a recess).
Hopefully you have time for this. We're rooting for you to get back up and running and to make the Mile. Enjoy.
Hopefully you have time for this. We're rooting for you to get back up and running and to make the Mile. Enjoy.
On my third video at 0:43 seconds into the video you can see on the passengers side one of the six coupling bolts with the white paint mark on the coupling housing and the washer, but not on the bolt. This means the that new coupler bolts were used when the inner bolts were supposedly changed. I observed the non-paint mark on the coupler bolts on both sides so someone at some time has worked on both sides. Tomorrow at the dealership I'll try not only to get pictures of the inner bolts and washer, but also those parts back to me as well. I'm hoping I can watch while the mechanic works on my car.
peiserg
GT Owner
just an FYI here, when my bolts were found to be faulty, i was under a time crunch so couldn't wait for torrie or the local ford dealer. My tech (rich, a forum member here, and one of the original ford builders who hand built the gt) went to Ace hardware, and they had a higher grade bolt than Ford used as a fix.. for $1.25 a bolt. Of course, the washers pushed it to $1.35 each.
Just an FYI.
Just an FYI.
THamonGT
GT
Gary was at Cook Ford at 7:00am this morning and met Larry Leonhardt and was serviced, replaced and on his way back to Houston. I'll let Gary post with the details of the repair. Have a great time at the Texas Mile Gary and be safe. Another Forum happening with help from all. Thank You. Tomy Hamon
HPGT
GT Owner
Thanks Tomy for posting info on Larry. Yes got up extra early this morning and made my way south to Texas City and met Larry at Cook Ford. Great guy to work with and really seemed interested in the car and doing a good job. Replacement bolt kit was there as promised by Shelby so thanks for getting those my way overnight.
I took pictures of what we found, but still trying to get last minute things together for going to the Texas Mile tomorrow so will probably post the pics Sunday when I get back. Bottom line was no broken bolts just severly loose on the driver's side and starting to work their way out on the passengers side. Bolts and washer was from the BA (correct) Ford kit so it appears that who ever replaced them maybe didn't torque them down correctly. Will post more later.
Magic
Again thanks to all on the Forum for their help getting me to the Texas Mile!
shelbyelite
PERMANENTLY BANNED
- May 10, 2007
- 1
Good to hear they were not broken, but surprised to hear they had backed out. I assume what ever ford tech changed the bolts (assuming it was a ford tech) may not have torqued them correctly although getting the right torque specs is pretty standard procedure especially on something like this.
The Oasis report they ran today showed no warranty work had been performed on the vehicle. So bolts must have been do somewhere else.The mechanic was surprised there were no markings on the coupler bolts as that is the normal way to tell that the TTY bolts have been done correctly.
sahlman
Ford GT Team Alumni
This thread had caught my eye and was just perusing when I ran across this post about replacement bolts. The following is just food for thought when replacing any structural bolts that are loaded and unloaded. I did not work on the half shaft fastening on the GT...but higher grade bolts often don't mean better for an application for two reasons:
1- Hydrogen embrittlement potential. Ford actually stays away from some of the highest/hardest grade bolts due to brittle failures and difficulty of process control during manufacturing.
2- A proper bolted joint that sees cyclical loading has a joint (the material being fastened together) that is far stiffer than the bolt, so that the proper bolt actually stretches when torqued properly (not yield though) to create enough preload on the joint. The correct amount of bolt preload force is required so that as the joint is loaded and unloaded (including reverse load) it still maintains enough preload to keep the joint tight, no slippage and not allow the bolt to back out.
So a harder and stiffer bolt torqued to the same spec as the softer bolt has a higher chance of backing out because the joint is not preloaded enough. All new joint/fastener testing for a harder bolt is ideally required to find a new torque spec and it still may not perform as well as well as the softer bolt because of preload needs.
So the bolts chosen may work, but wanted you guys to beware that a higher grade often doesn't mean better.
Scott
Cobrar
GT Owner
viva gt
GT Owner
THamonGT
GT
Good point. Larry (mechanic at Cook Ford) told me Gary was very lucky the bolts didn't back out while at Rally 7 and on the track. He thinks they were not torqued correctly. One side had backed out almost enough to put him on the side of the road. All is well and hopefully Gary is having a blast in Beeville, Texas (Texas Mile). Hopefully we will get reports from there. Talked to Mark this morning as the Camo record holder is there and they are going to make some set up runs today (some 1/2 mile runs) 110-220 then shoot for a good run tomorrow. Weather is in 70's with a little misty dampness on and off.
steved57
GT Owner
Just an FYI to this thread Magic (Gary) made it to the Mile today and ran a 177 mph ! There are five GT's here and I ran a 188.2, Dolph ran a 184.0, a GT from Canada ran a 202 but they were on a practice run and shooting for 230 during the weekend and Marh H's car ran a 252 so far. It was a very warm day with high humidty so power was down a bit so we are all hoping for better runs tomorrow as it is suppposed to be cooler and no headwinds like we had today
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