Driveshaft to Hub Splines-Grease or Glue?

H

hoverdog

Member
United-Kingdom
Hi all, in the process of giving my A2 a front end suspension refresh and would like to know if the driveshaft to hub splines need loctiting or moly greasing.
I've already removed both hubs where one driveshaft freely moved out of the end of the hub whereas the other almost felt as though it was welded to the splines.
 
I think anti fretting is a grease. I think the glue is Loctite. I din’t have access to my A2 manual at the moment.
 
Personally I really don't understand why driveshafts should be glued. For there to be any safety issue the hub nut would have to come loose and the lower wishbone snap at the same time. Whilst wishbones do rust through, I've never seen a hub nut come loose. So I conclude it is perhaps not a safety thing. Maybe it stops them knocking? Given the bending and breaking of tools that can occur trying to separate I'd rather have the knocking.
I did a wheel bearing recently and didn't glue (TDI90) and have experienced no ill effects.......yet. Maybe time/miles will change my mind!
To be clear, for the record, the manual says glue with two bands of thread locker.
 
I'm totally in agreement, glueing the splines appears to be illogical. The splines are surely there to allow a bit of longitudinal movement between the hub and the driveshaft. I've ascertained that one of my hubs was glued and the other, not. BUT the unglued hub was noisier, so maybe (as you say) the glue cuts the amount of noise-this seems to be the consensus among the forum. I'm hoping Loctite 660 is the one for the job, if anyone knows of an alternative please comment.
 
THey had a loctite like substance form factory. However I know a few people including myself have removed and refit with nothing on them, no issues 10K miles later. just use new nuts
 
It’s probably there to prevent the torque of a diesel twisting the drive shaft spline radially in the drive flange. There is a very slight chance radial movement could loosen the hub nut slightly resulting in bearing failure.
 
Depends on your engine and driveshafts I think how much of an issue it is, maybe some have better tolerance for the parts. I did not glue the splines on my car when replacing them and experienced fretting as the shaft was sliding side to side in the hub on my TDI AMF, this was a very disturbing noise and gave unpleasant feedback through the steering wheel when at greater steering angles, this was resolved by taking them apart and using loctite on the splines - which grieved me as it was so hard to remove them first time around I didn't really want to create the same problem again.
 
Little Dog said:
It’s probably there to prevent the torque of a diesel twisting the drive shaft spline radially in the drive flange. There is a very slight chance radial movement could loosen the hub nut slightly resulting in bearing failure.
Click to expand...
I agree, and also, for a male and female spline to match, there must be clearance. Where there is lateral clearance, there will be radial movement. Where there is movement, there will be wear.
Mac.
 
hoverdog said:
Hi all, in the process of giving my A2 a front end suspension refresh and would like to know if the driveshaft to hub splines need loctiting or moly greasing.
I've already removed both hubs where one driveshaft freely moved out of the end of the hub whereas the other almost felt as though it was welded to the splines.
Click to expand...
Done a few, I always wire brush and use Copaslip for ease of removing in the future. Seems daft to use a Loctite type product.
 
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