Ideola's Garage has been working with Stage8 to develop a locking CV bolt kit for the entire range of 924-944-968 cars. All of these cars utilize the twenty-four M8x48 cheesehead bolt to attach the half shafts at the transaxle stub axles and the outer hubs (six bolts per CV joint). As many of you know, the cheese head bolts are a royal PITA to deal with and will strip out if you're not careful. And for track driven cars, there have been multiple reports of the bolts backing out mid-session with catastrophic results. Many guys are safety wiring their bolts, and this was the approach I was planning to take on one of my 931 track car projects until a 924board member mentioned Stage8 (for a header bolt application).

The Stage8 system utilizes a so-called GrooveLok bolt, which has a 12-point head and a special groove in the head. Once the fastener is torqued down, any number of retainer shapes are available, which lock onto the 12-point bolt head, and are then retained using either an E-clip or spring clip. Here are some photos using the samples they sent to me installed on a late offset 944 CV joint, boot, and outer stub axle:

M8x65 GrooveLok bolt (the standard size would be M8x48)


Teardrop and D-Style retainers; spring clip and E-clip


D-style retainers installed, E-clip on left, no clip on the right (I didn't have a spring plier small enough at home)


Teardrop retainers installed (again, no spring clips, but they would normally have the spring clips installed)


Specifications
• Bolts Are Aircraft Quality Grade 12.9 – 4130 Alloy Steel
• Bolts Plated With A Duplex Nickel Finish
• Retainers are 5052-H32 Polished Aluminum
• Snap Rings & Clips Are Spring Steel
• Clips Are Plated With Duplex Nickel Finish

FAQ
Here are answers to some of the questions raised on Rennlist, Pelican and 924board.

Q: Are the bolts reusable?
A: Absolutely

Q: Which clip style is preferred
A: Since the CV joint is a rotating assembly, the full circle engagement of the spring clip is preferred. Either will work, but the spring clip is probably best

Q: Which style of retainer is preferred?
A: No preference, either style can be used

Q: Can retainers with different indexes be developed for snug abutment?
A: Both the D-style and the teardrop retainer are reversible with different "indexation" on each side

There was also a question on 924board regarding the material and tensile strength. They informed me that the 12-point bolts are actually 12.9, which is actually a grade 9 bolt, not a grade 8 as I posted (info pulled from their literature). Grade 9 is rated in excess of 150,000 pounds. These style of locking CV bolts are also used in all of the Formula Cars used at Bob Bondurant's racing school in Phoenix.

PRICING
1 to 4 participants: $106 per set (24 bolts, retainers & clips)
5-9 participants: $100.70 per set
10-14 participants: $95.40 per set
15-19 participants: $90.10 per set
20-39 participants: $84.80 per set
40 or more: $79.50 per set

Shipping will be add'l. I forgot to inquire if Stage 8 will drop ship or if they will want to send the whole order to me for sorting and shipping. I'll post back later with details on shipping, but I don't expect shipping to be more than $10 per order in the worst case scenario (for domestic...international will be a little more).

The group buy will be run just like we have done with the other group buys. I will issue paypal invoices to confirmed participants. Since I think there's a high likelihood that we'll hit 20 or more sets, I'll hold off invoicing until we get that many confirmations. I'm not in a particular rush, so there's no need to pick an arbitrary cutoff date at this point. The production lead time from the time I place the order until shipment of goods is a whopping ONE WEEK. Gotta love that!

PARTICIPANTS
{EDIT} -> Moved below

Please CONFIRM your interest by sending me a PM. If you haven't participated in one of my group buys in the past, please also send me your shipping information and email address. Alternatively, feel free to send me an email at dan DOT beckett AT ideola DOT com.

FINAL NOTE: I am personally comping one complete set of these bolts to 944cup for Dave to use at his discretion for promotional considerations.

Thanks everybody!

Thanks Dan. Appreciate your making this offer available to our drivers and being a sponsor of the series. Good luck with the grp buy.

Participant list moved to page 2.

I've known Dan for years and he does an outstanding job on these projects. Suggest anyone who is so inclined jump on this buy!

John, thanks for the kind words

By the way, folks, don't let the forum's "rookie driver" designation on John's profile fool you... Thought that was pretty funny.

Just curious, but I realize the stock bolts are not the easiest to deal with considering they are the triple square pattern that strips out if you are not careful. But, what is the benefit to these. My guess is that they should not come loose and the ease of installation. Any other benefits? Are they going to make life easier (even though I have not had a lot of issues with the stock bolts, just have to make sure they are checked before each session).


I guess, it looks like a lot more work to put on the extra clips an so forth. Are they that much better? Not being critical just asking (as it may be something I may want to possibly purchase, i.e. is it truly worth the investment?)


Thanks and it sounds like a good idea, just curious.

Joey Sullivan
#29

Joey
The benefits, I believe, are:

• Peace of mind, no concern over catastrophic failures on the track
• Much easier to install than safety wire. A couple of guys have commented that safety wire is possible to do "100% wrong", and not necessarily easy to identify at a glance! With the D-style clips in particular, there's no possible way to screw up the install, and with the teardrop style, you can readily identify if it's on correctly.
• Another huge advantage is reusability. The FSM requires new hardware. These bolts can be reused.

I think those are the biggies. At the current price, these things are a drop in the bucket of a typical race budget. If you've ever read any of the horror stories about what happens when the bolts back out, you'll see why the response has been so brisk. I've had several of the participants respond that this is a no brainer because they've had problems with the OEM units backing out, even with proper torquing and new hardware. Part of the problem is that it's exceedingly difficult to keep the CV grease out of the threads, and that probably contributes to the problem. Also, a couple of the 911 guys got wind of this, so I'm now working on developing products for them, because apparently, their cars suffer from the same issue.

If you have any follow up questions, don't hesitate to ask. If I can't answer, I'll get the info directly from Stage8.

I have to tighten my bolts after every race on my passenger side. These bolts will make me feel much safer

I appreciate the response. That's what I needed to know.

Joey

I'm making an executive decision to close this group buy to further participants after Midnight EST Friday 22 Jan 2010. Given the response, I fully expect we'll be running another group buy before race season commences

I am strongly recommending the use of the D-style retainers and the spring clips. Unless I hear from you differently, this is what I will be ordering. It would be extremely helpful to not have to handle different permutations of retainers and clips, so unless you have a burning need for the teardrop retainer or E-clip, I'm hoping we can all agree to use the D-style and spring clip.

Today I am expecting to have the figures for shipping as well as extra bolt packs, extra retainer packs and extra clip packs. As soon as I have those numbers, I'll post them so you can each decide if you want extras of anything before I start invoicing.