Helical Spring lockwashers- have you ever used them? I bet you have

[retrieverman]

Well, I, for one, haven't had really bad issues with lock-washers, and I've done a heck of a lot of outdoor working with farm implements and trucks over the years. I also suspect that the use of lock-washers and regular nuts are cheaper than the lock-nuts.

I use lock washers on everything, but most of the time, I use a lock nut to hold them down. My stuff ain’t going nowhere.

 

[Jon3830]

if it is something I am really worried about I just use nord lock and not worry about it, everything else just gets the good old lock washer.

 

[swampratt]

External tooth lock washers work for flexplate bolts.
Those Original Post washers have never worked but make good spacers.

Need a lock nut and do not have any handy.

Take a regular nut and thread it 1/3 to 1/2 way onto a bolt.
Lay the nut and bolt on a hard surface concrete or steel.
Wack the nut with a hammer pinching the threaded portion that is not threaded onto the bolt.

Now you have a locking nut.
It will thread on by finger strength until you get to the slightly pinched area and then it is wrench time.

I have done that many times.

 

[joegrizzy]

We had an informational session with Fastenal about fasteners. Dry torque sucks and isn't repeatable and lock washers don't work aside from a few expensive options (Nord-Lock). Also, most people don't understand bolt grades and some folks still believe Grade 8 is more brittle than Grade 5.

yeah but if you've seen the yield curves for both you'll understand why people say that.

grade 5 will fatigue and begin to deform, whereas grade 8 will hold until it can't and just shear off. this leads to people thinking that grade 8 will break "more easily" thus the brittle explanation.

most of the time if someone is using a pipe over a breaker bar and doing a leg press to break off a bolt, they won't have a good idea for how much force they are using compared to grade 5 vs grade 8.

the real pros use l9 anyway.

 

[swampratt]

I made front leaf spring clamps for a Ford Harley truck that was upgraded to the better Ford supercharger and cooler and a tune.
I was told the truck put 550 tq to the wheels.

I used Grade 8 bolts from Ace hardware.
1/2" diameter and they broke.
Grade 5 worked.
Was it a made in China bolt that was not up to the task?

I know the truck dead hooked with clamped front spring pack and wheel hopped with no clamps.
Drag slicks of course.

Most of my vehicles got used 7/16" head bolts for the clamps and never had any issues with them.

 

[joegrizzy]

I made front leaf spring clamps for a Ford Harley truck that was upgraded to the better Ford supercharger and cooler and a tune.
I was told the truck put 550 tq to the wheels.

I used Grade 8 bolts from Ace hardware.
1/2" diameter and they broke.
Grade 5 worked.
Was it a made in China bolt that was not up to the task?

I know the truck dead hooked with clamped front spring pack and wheel hopped with no clamps.
Drag slicks of course.

Most of my vehicles got used 7/16" head bolts for the clamps and never had any issues with them.

could have been a number of reasons. without knowing more information, i would ask:

>how long were the grade 8 bolts used in that application?
>were they exposed to a higher amount of force than the other bolts (very heavy load dumped into bed, took out a curb, etc etc)?
>were they exposed to higher concentrations of road salts?
>were they zinced, nickel, galvanized, stainless?

like i said earlier, the yield curve of gr5 will show that it will fatigue as it stresses and begin to deform prior to failure for a longer period than gr8 will. however, the *amount* of force to overcome a gr8 would be more than the gr5 would theoretically hold, so that should be moot.

the line of thinking there is; you notice a complete failure and breakage of the bolt/shearing, but you might not notice a bit of fatigue deformation over time. again, this is kinda into the wives tale territory, but there's lots of wild things that likely we simply still don't fully understand about metallurgy/real world physics interactions/engineering or at the end of the day people lie.

i worked in fastener distribution for years and saw several things that weren't really explainable past the proverbial "you got a bad one".

lets just say i did a LOT of lot tracing.

 

[John6185]

Several months ago I used a lock washer and when I tightened the nut down, the lock washer broke. I never gave it much thought except it was the first one in my life that failed. in retrospect, it was probably manufactured in China and distributed in the USA.

 

[Rustytigwire]

they suck.
buy this and apply his knowkege.
tensile test a few bolts and other metals.
torque some bolts to plenty and measure % elongation and yield then permanant deformation.
lock washers? waste.