| Author | Message | ||
| Jerry (152.163.188.227)
Rating: N/A |
Howdy Gang! Don't know if this is a national trend but noticed my local transit authority placing, for lack of the actual term, indexer's on their wheel lug nuts -- These are pointers sliped over each lug nut on each wheel. They are all pointing in the same clockwise direction around the circle of the lug nuts. I'll guess they are there to indicate, in a very easily noticable way, if one or more of the lug nuts are loosening. I also assume all the nuts are first properly torqued first and these pointers are put over the nuts all indexed in the same direction. These pointers are a "day glow green" color VERY hard to miss and very easy to see if a nut(s)is loosining. I don't want to go that far but thought it would be an idea to place a little dot of paint or mark from a marker in the same way on my nuts -- bus wheel nuts that is, for the same purpose: to readily notice if any are loosening. Of course each time the wheel is changed or lug nuts retorqued the marks will have to be redone. A little bottle of liquid paper correction fluid would work great for something like this. | ||
| nvnenzel (207.213.161.157) Rating: N/A |
Jerry, in the Army we used a paint like material to mark torqued bolts on the CH-54 skycrane helicopter (do not call it a copter; big, ugly, or airplane, but not copter) to verify the bolts had not become loose. (you know the old addage, you can't just pull over at 12,000'; lose a bolt in the air and that 45000 lb monster does some stange things) Part of the 'daily' was to inspect all of these marked bolts. But for the life of me I can't think of the name of the material. I keep thinking it was called thread lock or thread seal, but don't quote me. It came in a tube like locktite and I know it can ususally be found in the same area as the loctite. All you do is clean the area and run a bead down the bolt onto whatever the bolt seats against. Much better than white out and a real safty device if used properly. Keep up the great work on this board. nvnenzel in Reno. | ||
| Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (65.194.145.35)
Rating: N/A |
The Fire Department I worked for for a while did this with all sorts of nuts and bolts, including the one behind the wheel and.... ....all the lug nuts. Only they were kinda cheap and used just drops of white or black paint, one dab on the bolt or nut and one dab next to it. Anyway, we were supposed to check our nuts each shift to see if they had loosened up or if they had fallen off or stuff. Thanks.  | ||
| J L Vickers (209.34.24.45) Rating: N/A |
It,s called torque seal used to verify that the bolt or nut was torqued to proper torque. | ||
| Mike Stabler (Docdezl) (64.255.109.141)
Rating: N/A |
I use poor mans Loctite....RUST! Never run out and its always the same color....red oxide? I learned a long time ago from a real mechanic. "IF you see a run of rust comming from a bolt,nut ,stud on a wheel,a mount,in a frame,... its working and not tight." Has served me well. smoke,rattle&,stink.....docdezl | ||
| Doug Dickinson (Dougd470) (24.207.251.176)
Rating: N/A |
At NJ TRANSIT in the late 80s, they had a wheel fall off an MC9 while in revenue service. They checked all the lugs in the fleet and found that there were many that were not up to spec torque=wise, They started using a paint market to help determine if the nut was coming loose. I left there in 96, but I bought one of the MC9s last summer and they are still using the marker system. I check mine each time I take the bus for a run. | ||
| Scott Whitney (66.82.9.42) Rating: N/A |
Conversely, the other day I was at a friend's house replacing an air bag. We wanted to get the front wheel off for easier access. No amount of effort at 160psi using a 1" impact wrench and plenty of liquid wrench would get those lug nuts off. I am now concerned what may happen on roadside if I get a flat. Does roadside service have some tricks up their sleeve for this problem? Only thing we didn't try was a torch. Scott | ||
| Jerry (205.188.209.11)
Rating: N/A |
the tourch thing works -- heating the nuts to near cherry red and they come right off. I had especially had to use this method when I first got my 4106 -- I'm sure the nuts hadn't been off for MANY years. I'm concerned what damage, if any, might be being done to the nuts with such heating -- wonder about that. I've began to use anti-sieze on the threads and actually use a torque wrench to torque the nuts to proper specs and that has been working good. I must admit, however, a "senior moment" forgetting the left side of the bus is left handed threads -- thought I'd never get those nuts off -- turing them the correct direction for removal and MUCH easier. -- Jerry 4106 near St Louis |