How do you tighten inner CV-joint bolts? (Type-44)

[George Selby]

At 08:10 PM 6/17/04 -0400, you wrote:
>I was able to get at a few of them by using a 12" extension, but the bit 
>doesn't stay centered as I tighten and I can't get the right torque w/ my 
>wrench (59 ft-lbs. I believe). The problem is also how to keep the wheel 
>from turning. I don't have a lift, but is that what I'll end up needing? TIA.


 From doing it on a couple of different cars with triple square bolts or 
Allen bolts, you need to leave the other three wheels on the ground, leave 
the tranny in gear, parking brake on, diff locks if you have them 
activated.  You will take off the wheel on the side you are 
tightening.  Then tighten the ones you can get to.  Then put the car in 
neutral, take off the diff locks and spin the axle around until you can get 
at a couple more bolts.  On the ones I did, I could easily get to two bolts 
at the same time, and thus had to spin the axle around 120 degrees twice to 
get at all 6 bolts.  I used enough extensions to get the rachet totally 
past the brake rotor.  If you use several extensions, you can get a few 
degrees of flex in the assembly, which may get you past an obstruction 
without a universal joint.

As to the bit, I found the ones you can buy at AutoZone, the ones in the 
set of 4 triple square bits, that you then either use a wrench or a socket 
over the end are machined much better, and tend to strip out much less 
frequently than the ones that are already preformed into a 3/8" socket 
unit.  You can also put more torque on the bolt before the wheel spins if 
you apply the force through the center of the hub, rather than outside the 
circle.  By this I mean when you are applying force to the rachet, your 
hand should pass right in front of the center of the wheel hub.  Your hand 
should not be outside the diameter of the brake rotor.

George Selby