Floppy joints

Gearbox is coming out today to go to hospital. I went to undo the drive shaft and all 24 bolts were loose, two were completely undone! I've only done about 200 miles and they were all new joints, bolts and Schnorr washers all torqued up correctly. Apart from doing them up tighter, what could have caused them to come loose? I wondered what the knocking noise was coming back from TE

 

Dunno. Normally they don't come undone. Best to clean all grease off mating surfaces, so it doesn't squish.

What did you do them up to?

 

I assume you had the spreader plates installed too?

 

I hang on mine, the torque spec seems to me to be really loose so I don't even use a torque wrench!

 

Can't remember but I remember looking it up and using a torque wrench. Waste of time that was.

I did indeed Jim.

Yup, will be doing that this time.

 

28 ft lbs, from memory? Mine have never come undone.

 

It's hard not to get grease in the flange threads but I'm sure this contributes to failure. Worth taking extra care when threading the bolts through the joints and, if you're DIY, run an M8 tap down the threads.
Faff, but less stress than a ride home on a low loader

 

You need to roll them tighter, stops them drooping when you light them.

 

Is the gearbox hospital in Wales?

For the CV bolts the Bentley manual has 25ft/lb for the T2 and 33ft/lb for the T3 - with the same bolts. I torque mine to 33ft/lb after having had them come loose at 25ft/lb.

 

cheap crappy bolts ?

 

Yeah I ran the tap down all the threads and probably did get grease in there. Going to clean everything and will use loctite and do them up tighter this time.

Don't think so, they are the proper jobs that came with the kit. The 3square type.

I'll be keeping a close eye on them when they go back together.

Definitely nowhere near Wales! Much closer to home this time

 

I'd be interested if you get a report back on the current fork position. Is this what it's going away for?

 

Just got the gearbox front and rear mount bolts and the moustache bar bolts left to undo to drop the engine and box. Can't remember if the fan housing (type 4) has to come off first?

 

Yes it's off to have first gear sorted, a luxury I've been missing to date.

 

Engine (type4) and box are coming out together. Carbs and starter motor are off and all the connected bits. Do the rear tin and fan housing have to come off first?

Edit: exhaust is staying on.

 

Yup. 33ft lb or 45Nm as @77 Westy says.
Same bolts...assuming they are the correct spec initially.
High tensile 12.9 grade.

I seem to have accumulated a large collection of varying lengths
4 square or Allen, doesn't really matter

 

IIRC just the plastic oil filler but maybe, not even that - eye it up - then again I'm usually hinging down on the front gear box mount so you'll probably find you don't need to remove anything at all. The most important thing not to forget is the fuel line for obvious reasons!
I wouldn't have bothered taking the carbs off, but that's just me.

 

Don’t use tobacco

 

That was it! I was racking my nugget to remember what caused @davidoft a bit of grief on ours and it was the oil fill pipe. Twas on a bit tight...

 

Thanks guys. Long johns on, off into the fridge/garage I go.