I have an 87' sterling 10.25 the carrier is welded and has 5.13 gears and discs

what happened was that the 8 bolts that hold the axle shaft to the hub, vibrated loose, then all the torque was sideloaded on the bolts and snapped them right off. This happened on the drivers side hub. All 8 holes have snapped off bolts inside now. The passenger side bolts were all finger tight so i cranked them down before it got worse.

my question is, does anybody know what grade bolts the hub bolts are? they look about 1/2'' diameter. Since im a cheap fuck i might try and save the hub by drilling and using an easy out.

second question, has anybody else ever had this problem? when i built the axle everything was torqued but i didnt loctite those particular bolts.

and by the way driving with a half welded rear end on 44'' boggers down the highway is fun:p

grade 8 are the ones in mine, its a '91 sterling

yeah, I did this on mine during the winter, took out the detroit too. They are 7/16 course bolts. I am running grade 8's and loctited the shit out of them. They have all back out again. I am going to try studs, I hear that is a fix for it. I never had this issue with the 40" MTR's, and I had those for a few years. I think the 42's must be the culprit.

when you do it chase the bolt holes with a tap and clean the piss out of the bolt and the hole then use sum high stregth loctite on them the one u need heat to remove and u should be good

when you do it chase the bolt holes with a tap and clean the piss out of the bolt and the hole then use sum high stregth loctite on them the one u need heat to remove and u should be good

:laughing: Twat?

The bolts used to back out of the rear 60 in my rig, & I always knew when they were loose by the oil that would start spraying into the wheel. I tried cleaning & locktite & anything else I could think of & it did nothing. I finally called up the Ford dealer, & ordered OEM replacement bolts for it (they came with some kind of dry threadlocker on them) & ran it another 2 years until I swapped it out & they never came loose again.

:laughing: Twat?



what the hell are u talking about?

If the bolts were loose when they sheared off, get yourself a left handed drill bit, and they'll probably come out with ease.
I had the pass side bolts come loose on the 10.25 in my diesel tow pig once(welded with 33's) torqued them to spec, and never had another issue. I think it's kind of goofy that they dont' have a taper or anything like a Dana axle does.

to remove mine on the trail, I just drilled a small hole and hammered a torx bit in. they back right out easliy.

the nice thing is that sterlings are dime a dozen at pick and pull, so relpacement shafts are readily available.

when you do it chase the bolt holes with a tap and clean the piss out of the bolt and the hole then use sum high stregth loctite on them the one u need heat to remove and u should be good

im going to try that. i've got the red loc tite only thing is, if i snap a shaft then it might be a bitch to pull the shaft unless ive got a torch handy.

The bolts used to back out of the rear 60 in my rig, & I always knew when they were loose by the oil that would start spraying into the wheel. I tried cleaning & locktite & anything else I could think of & it did nothing. I finally called up the Ford dealer, & ordered OEM replacement bolts for it (they came with some kind of dry threadlocker on them) & ran it another 2 years until I swapped it out & they never came loose again.

i think if i get the broken bolts out ill try the stealership. hopefully i dont get raped too badly. i would imagine the dry threadlocker would be the same or equivalent to regular ass loctite whether its red or blue

got all the broken bolts out.

hey plug ugly are you running the oem bolts or just regular grade 8 bolts

switched from stock to regulatr grade 8's

sorry for the noobish questions i was just curious if this was a common problem or not.

thanks for the help everyone:flipoff2:

sorry for the noobish questions i was just curious if this was a common problem or not.

thanks for the help everyone:flipoff2:

Searched the forum for a thread where I might be able to post what comes below, and came upon this. Couldn't help but chuckle because, yes, this is a common problem. Never heard of this happening on a 14b, and the 14b uses larger (1/2" IIRC) bolts on their hubs. As a result recommended torque on the 14b hub bolts is much higher than the 10.25. If I cared enough I'd reference my Helm manual for the Ford and the Billavista 14b Bible write-up here for the 14b specs. I think Ford's in the 40ft lbs range while the 14b is 115ft lbs.

NOW, I didn't want to start my own thread for this so I'll drop it here. I built a homebrew log splitter. It uses a HF air-over 8t ram, but that's another story. I wanted to make the splitter mobile and potentially towable, altho I can't think of any friends who have a compressor big enough to power the air-over ram for any meaningful amount of time, so I dunno where I'd tow it.

Anyhow I needed some inexpensive wheel bearing hubs, and I've parted lots of Ford trucks. I dug up a 10.25 and cut the center section out, then welded the tubes back together. Made for cheap spindles and hubs. Of course now the "axle" is narrower and stock shafts will not slide in to cap the wheel bearing hubs and seal out the elements. I didn't want to cut up stock shafts 'cause I still run a 10.25 in my trail rig (altho a 14b swap seems inevitable).

I had time to kill so I measured up a stock shaft flange and made my own flanges. B.C. is 8 on 3.975, w a hole dia of .475. Major OD is 4.750 while inner OD (where the o-ring groove would be) is 3.280 IIRC. I did not duplicate the o-ring groove as RTV will work for me. Total thickness is .820 w the outer flange being .400 of that.

See, I told you it was tech you'll never need.

A guy I know quite commonly uses full floaters to build trailer axles, His caps are nowhere near as fancy as yours, he just uses a piece of place cut in a circle and bolted on, no inner OD at all.

As for the hub bolts, on both my diesel Ford and my wheeling pig, I just used the impact to put in the bolts, no problems....
My Dodges, the 89 has studs and cone washers, the 92 just has bolts...

kieth, those would be nice to have incase i broke another shaft and i needed a cap to keep the oil in. I ended up just cutting the shaft i had when my bolts all sheared, but you should sell those for one million dollars.

I ended up just cutting the shaft i had when my bolts all sheared, but you should sell those for one million dollars.

The price is right!

And yeah, a simple plate would do. I just wanted to make 'em this way just 'cause

The price is right!

And yeah, a simple plate would do. I just wanted to make 'em this way just 'cause

ya those are nice little caps

well im building another 10.25'' with a detroit instead of a welded diff this time and im thinking of maybe getting some grade 8 studs made and puttin those in the hubs and using stover nuts on the studs, just because of last time..:shaking:

Grade 8 Bolts with Lock-washers, Proper torque specs--works Excellent! Several trips since my Breakage and they haven't loosened up at all.

Grade 8 Bolts with Lock-washers, Proper torque specs--works Excellent! Several trips since my Breakage and they haven't loosened up at all.

Thats what my 94 has too. Although I only run 39" iroks and only in the snow so I dont know if I even count.