BOLT FELL OUT - Spinning CV - Uh-Oh.

[ethernectar]

Looking for insight here.

We ran most of the Bradshaw trail yesterday, fun double track trail, nothing technical, all in 4Hi . 2-1/2 hours out, 7 hours on the trail and 2-1/2 hours back home. No issues, about 11MPG overall.

This morning I drove (<50 yards) from a parking spot to right in front of the garage and unloaded gear, tidied the truck up, etc. Then parked it about another 50 yards away.

A few hours later I went out to go have lunch, hopped in the truck and put it in reverse. When I put it in gear there was a small 'chuk' sound, which I thought was a charger plug getting smashed in the shift gate. I rolled back and put it in gear and it just sat there. Drive/Reverse/Park/Off/On/Drive/Reverse - no go. (I will mention there was no crunching/grinding/breaking/popping sounds, only the small sound noted above.)

I got out and could see the driver's side CV spinning. OH S... So I put it in 4Low, locked the center diff and crept it back up into its spot. When I got out I find this bolt on the ground. After looking I find that its fallen out of the bottom 'hub' (for lack of the technical term). That's not good, right...? I also noticed fresh CV grease on the upper boot.

Back at the end of the year I cut a CV boot and one of the local Toyota dealers replaced the whole CV under warranty.

So I have a couple questions:

Is the spinning (broken??) cv and bolt related (I assume so). If so, how?
Has ANYONE had one of these bolts fall out, or ever heard of it?
Any thoughts/input/ideas?

It'll get towed to the dealer tomorrow but will be calling that first dealer in the AM to see what they say. Maybe something didn't get torqued to spec? I have no idea but there's gotta be some correlation...

 

[Roy Park]

That looks like the bolt that holds the lower ball joint to the knuckle. Is your lower ball joint not lined up to the knuckle now? Or can you thread that bolt back in? If it’s crooked now, you may have pulled the cv too far in backing up and it popped out. It’s a pretty small retainer clip holding it in. It’s an involved but doable fix.

But I’m not an expert.

 

[Yossarian]

That's one of 2 very important bolts. Refer to pic below from another Mud member, it is supposed to be torqued to 221 ft/lbs.

 

[Sandroad]

I'd say the bolt is related to the CV failure because I think it's pretty obvious the CV work at the dealer was not done correctly. There is no way that bolt could just "fall out" unless it was not torqued to specs (or really even tightened). Glad you made it through that mishap with no injuries. I wonder what else was not tightened correctly in that job? When the service dept. gets in there, they will likely find some missing/loose parts that led to the falling out of the new axle/CV, unless it was the situation @Roy Park described with the lower unit pivoting too far as a result of the missing bolt. I don't think the CV broke or the axle stripped spines or anything like that (you probably would have heard that). I think the axle/CV just came apart from something not tight or missing. Further, from the looks of the general area and the wheel and tire, I'd say the CV was loose and leaking grease for a while. There's a lot of dirty grease everywhere. So, I hope they get it all back together with the correct parts and torques this time (for free).

 

[linuxgod]

If it’s spinning the CV may have popped out. I’m surprised you can’t move though - you should still get at least 30% of the power sent to the rear wheels.

 

[tominboise]

Never good timing but better in the parking lot then out on the trail.

 

[ethernectar]

If it’s spinning the CV may have popped out. I’m surprised you can’t move though - you should still get at least 30% of the power sent to the rear wheels.

I didn't have time at the moment to see what I could do with it, was already running behind so hopped in the '40 series.

Sidebar, is there a way to lock the center dif while you're in 4hi?

 

[TexAZ]

I think toy is correct. The bolt wasn't tightened and vibrated out. Extremely fortunate that it happened moving in a parking lot , not at speed should be a simple fix, check the bolt, check the knuckle threads rebuild the CV.

Go kiss Beth and buy a lottery ticket. You got some luck this weekend!

 

[TexAZ]

You Will want to jack up the front of the truck and see if you can thread the bolt back in before moving the truck. Those bolts can be a pain to get aligned. Once its started just tighten it enough to get it On a flat bed tow truck.


On the 08 you can lock the center diff in 4 high. In park, Just push the button. it make take a few feet of movement for it to engage.

 

[Markuson]

@ethernectar
In your bolt photo I see what looks like Red Lock-tite at the top end of the threads...and a lot of grease below the red. Wonder if it needed lock-tite and wasn't re-applied last time?

 

[TonyP]

I'm thinking the CV was dislodged due to the missing bolt and you lost all your CV bearings in the boot. Just a theory. Grab and squeeze the bottom of the boots and see if I you can feel the balls in there.

Either way, bring it back to the dealer and give them an earful. If that happened on a trail it would have sucked, hard.

 

[1MAC]

If it’s spinning the CV may have popped out. I’m surprised you can’t move though - you should still get at least 30% of the power sent to the rear wheels.

Even more if you lock the center differential, I'd guess.

 

[Atwalz]

IMO, These bolts should be checked and torqued once a year or more for those of us who drive on dirt roads. Lot of shaking, vibrations and moving parts can do this. All cab bolts, suspension, steering, brake calipers and driveshaft bolts should be inspected and torqued periodically. I have noticed loose top long bolt on UCA and lower steering knuckle bolts. Maybe add some blue loctite and retorque them. Glad to hear everything is ok. You got lucky. That reminds me, I need to check everything at next oil change. Lesson learned here.

 

[ethernectar]

Dealer is fixing it, should have it back tomorrow PM.

Thanks @Atwalz - time to get the FSM and a torque wrench.