I fitted my sets to their runners and have found that the rear bolts are too short to put nylocs on them by 1mm
Does the SVA inspector look for nylocs to be fitted or are normal nuts OK?
What about nuts vs nylocs generally?

[Edited on 7-7-2005 by smart51]

[Edited on 7-7-2005 by smart51]

Always nylocs!!
Better to be safe than sorry!

Try http://www.allfix.co.uk/ or any other fixing suppliers and do a search for half nuts they should do the job.

Aircraft always have two clear threads available with a locking nut. Do what I did, turn the nuts down in the lathe!

If in doubt always fit some sort of locking device.

Half nuts are for doing up tight against full nuts in order to lock them up tight and not coming undone. I personaly would find/beg/borrow/steal longer bolts to be on the safe side.

[Edited on 7/7/05 by clbarclay]

what about shakeproof washers with full nuts? That is put a shake proof washer between the load spreading washer and the nut?

In my opinion/experience, a correctly torqued jiont with sufficient clamping length do not come loose.

The nyloc part of the nut only make the nut stay on the thread, and do not fall off completely, if it for some reason work loose. But the nyloc part does not contribute to securing the clamp in the first place.

The forces making the bolt/nut stay intact comes only from the torque/clamping.

I have done a lot of vibration testing on high loads and have VERY few cases where the bolt clamps has vibrated loose.

A lot of the tested parts are also assembled on aluminum brackets which are fairly soft, but the bolts cops wth this also.

So, in my opinion the nylocs are more for show than go. But I use them on the build where the inspectors demands, like on the suspension arms.

/Hasse

You could always do the aircraft thing - wire all the fasteners. This is also recommended by Carroll Smith in his books on racing car fasteners.

David

I would use standard nuts and Loctite or castlated nuts and split pins. As mentioned before turning down nylocs would be another option if you have access to a lathe.
At the end of the day these attachments are not liable to be subjected to high loads unless you have attached your harness to the seats.

Mick

I was speaking with a guy whos done some work on the A1GP cars recently and he said they use claridon (sp?) k nuts.

Ive never heard of these. Has anybody else.

Thanks for the replies. I feel reassured now. I have used nylocs on the fronts and full nuts with shakeproof washers on the backs. Given that nylocs don't hold the nut tight I'm not too worried about not using them all round. The harnesses are not attached to the seats and so the only force that the seat bolts take are during acceleration and cornering. I think they'll be just fine.

Aren't "k" nuts flange nuts?

Pat...

http://www.fullermetric.com/products/nuts_metric/K-Lock_Nuts.htm

I look on Nyloks as a last line of defence - if, for example, one of my front suspension swivel joints decides to come undone then I'll have a short period of time to notice that something isn't right. An ordinary nut would shake off in seconds and I'd end up with a wheel flapping around before I would be aware that something was wrong.

David