Arb Bolts coming loose/out of holes in rev dana 30

I did some searching under the subject of arb bolts coming loose in my rev dana 30 with 4.56 gears. I found 2 of my bolts totally out of the bolt holes and 1 bolt head loose to the touch. It's very hard to tighten down the bolts again in the confined space of the diff itself. Was anyone able to reseat the bolts that came loose? Did they come all the way out? I plan on using some locktight on them, but am having a problem getting enough bite on the bolt head to tighten them down. What did you do? Please advise.
thanks...Troy

Big Red said:

I did some searching under the subject of arb bolts coming loose in my rev dana 30 with 4.56 gears. I found 2 of my bolts totally out of the bolt holes and 1 bolt head loose to the touch. It's very hard to tighten down the bolts again in the confined space of the diff itself. Was anyone able to reseat the bolts that came loose? Did they come all the way out? I plan on using some locktight on them, but am having a problem getting enough bite on the bolt head to tighten them down. What did you do? Please advise.
thanks...Troy

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Which bolts? are you talking about ring gear bolts? If so they should have had red loctite on the m in the first place.

and torqued to spec

No he's talking about the small bolts that hold the carrier together.This is a fairly common problem,just get each one clean and lay on the loctite.As for getting access to the bolt head Ive never had a problem there,if I remember correctly it is metric,but a 1/4" drive ratchet/socket should do the trick!

you should also buy new bolts,and the locking things they put over the bolt heads. I bought mine from the local arb distributer here in utah. Cost me like ten bucks for the bolts and the little locking things. Replace them all

RCP Phx said:

No he's talking about the small bolts that hold the carrier together.This is a fairly common problem,just get each one clean and lay on the loctite.As for getting access to the bolt head Ive never had a problem there,if I remember correctly it is metric,but a 1/4" drive ratchet/socket should do the trick!

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Thanks, yeah, it is the bolts that hold the ARB unit together. I have the lock-tight, just need to get 2 new bolts from ARB, they seem to have unbolted themselves and didn't break inside the holes. I know I heard how the dana 30 flexes quite a bit, I'll try to get all the bolts with lock-tight and then retorqued down. Does anyone know if I can get these bolts from Central 4 wheel or do I need to get them from ARB directly? Also are they general to the ARB, or specific sized to the rev dana 44?
Troy

DrMoab said:

you should also buy new bolts,and the locking things they put over the bolt heads. I bought mine from the local arb distributer here in utah. Cost me like ten bucks for the bolts and the little locking things. Replace them all

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What locking thing over the bolt heads? It would be nice to like a "cotter pin" like the steering castle nut/bolt utilizes.

Is the kit listed as a rebuild kit? 2 of my bolts were totally out of the holes. I found 1 of them at the bottom of my diff when I drained the fluid, I don't know what happened to the other 1?

Big Red said:

Does anyone know if I can get these bolts from Central 4 wheel
Troy

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Yeah call Central on Monday. If they can't get them call my buddy Scott at ARB.

ECKSJAY said:

Yeah call Central on Monday. If they can't get them call my buddy Scott at ARB.

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Thanks man, don't you hate it when things are closed on Sunday and you need something? I also wanted to see in there after running Fordyce with the deep water. I really didn't see any water in the diffs thank goodness. I'm putting in Mobil 1 synthetic into my front arb dana 30/detroit locked dana 44.

I called West Coast diff here in Sac and I will go there to get the new bolts and then lock tite them down. Have any of you changed out the bolts and retorqued them down without removing the arb from the diff? There is little area to get in there, maybe I could do it with a small open end wrench. Arb said only 13 ft/lbs is needed to torque them to spec. So not real snug right? I guess I will have to guesstimate it with the open ended wrench? I have limited tools and want to fix this by just getting the new bolts putting some lock-tite on them. The ARB guy said that the bolts should have lock tite on them from the factory, so I just want to get 2 new bolts for the ones I'm missing and retighten down the loose 1. Any suggestions from people who have done this?

Troy

those little clips fall off too, and loctite didn't work in the first place did it? My buddy hobart made sure they won't loosen up again.

Btw I used a regular wrench to tighten them up.

Gary E said:

those little clips fall off too, and loctite didn't work in the first place did it? My buddy hobart made sure they won't loosen up again.

Btw I used a regular wrench to tighten them up.

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Thanks Gary. Yeah I got some new bolts with locktite on them, I'll get some more on there and then get the new lock bolts clips on there as well. I think I can tighten them down, but it is a bit hard to get the entire socket on the bolt head while the arb is in the diff. Arb told me to tighten them down to 13 ft/lbs and no more because these are tension to yield and anymore torque will snap the bolt. Did you get your dana 30 trussed up or did you go with a dana 44 up front?
Troy