Silicone as a Thread Locker?

[colnago]

I started rebuilding a C6 last week. It has a short tail, and the 10-spline yoke is bolted to the end of the output shaft. In order to remove the nut and yoke, I had to cut a bunch of silicone sealer off. The nut was not a castle nut; there is not a hole in the output shaft for a cotter pin. Did Ford use silicone to keep the nut from loosening, or was this something that an owner did after the fact? Just curious. There was also no washer of any kind.

Joseph

[colnago]

I dug into it a bit more today. Seems that the grooves also had silicone. Now, I'm wondering if it was more to seal the rear of the tranny than as a thread-locker.

Joseph

[colnago]

I ran into an old thread where BobbyFord said to put silicone in the grooves to keep the tranny from dripping out the rear. So, I guess it's more for sealing from leaks than it is to keep the nut in place. Makes me wonder why Ford didn’t use a castle nut, unless they figured that the yoke couldn't go anywhere with the front driveshaft keeping it in place.

Joseph

[Ranchero50]

Yep. I also do it to water pump bolts to keep them from rusting to the block and corroding to the water pump / timing cover.