Are split washers good enough? No loctite.

[matthews2001]

As a backyard mechanic and former engineer I NEVER understood torque wrenchs on OLD installations with dirty nuts and threads and stressed threads. Whenever I tried a torque wrench it seemed like I was just torquing dirt and stressed threads! Even old stuff cleaned up still had stressed threads and a bit of dirt...

I became a believer in TIGHT and REALLY TIGHT. Probably oversharing here and gonna get a lot of flak....

[musigenesis]

I've never used well nuts but I have used closed-end rivnuts (to reattach my rear lights) and that's what I would use for anchoring strut to my roof. The advantage of closed-end rivnuts is that they're completely watertight (if put in "wet" with seam sealer around the holes) so you don't have to also glop up the bolts you put into them like you would with open-end rivnuts. The disadvantage is that 1/4"-20 is the largest closed-end rivnut I've ever been able to find, so you'd have to put in more of them than if you were using 5/16" or 3/8" rivnuts.

I guess closed-end rivnuts are sort of similar to well nuts, except it seems that well nuts are only watertight if something is bolted into them, whereas closed-end rivnuts are watertight even with no bolts in them, which might be handy if you temporarily remove or change things up there. Wikipedia also says well nuts are not particularly strong which could be a problem for mounting your solar.

[Booyah45828]

I used riv nuts and stainless bolts to mount my awning brackets on the bus. I actually used them again to mount a battery tray in a polaris ranger last week. They work well so long as you install them right and the hole is free of burrs.

Riv nuts are available at my local menards, possibly tsc as well. I've never seen anyone local have the well nuts.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

my lowes has well nuts but rivnuts are special order even with fastenal and grainger.

[Meathead]

Good discussion guys. I’ve been agoogling the new to me terms [emoji3]

[emoji3522]Dave

[joeblack5]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Split lock washers really don't make any sense. Their rationale is that they're springs and the upward force on the bolt they provide produces friction that prevents the bolt from turning. But: that is exactly how bolts work on their own, with the torque producing a far larger upward force on the bolt (and correspondingly far larger frictional force) than anything you get from that weak little spring slightly compressed.

I am not sure that I agree with the above statement.

A split lock washer is made of spring steel and should be slightly harder then the other two materials. A split lock washer is made in such a way that the edges are sharp and they dig into the bolt and base material. For that reason a lock washer should not be overtightened because that would flatten the sharp edge. For higher torque there is the high collar split lock washer.
You will feel its effect if you untighten the nut. There is a small hesitation in the beginning because of the shearing of the sharp edge.
So in theory you should use a lock washer only once.

A lot depends on the application and then of course knowledge and experience of the person who uses them.

In Ross's wind turbine generator example more issues are important.
This is a high dollar equipment in a very complicated environment and it would be simply not worth the risk to use a lock washer if a better, albeit more expensive solution is available.


Johan

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

i dont like the well nut idea in just one layer of sheet metal because it is a rubber compression outer and i see them just getting cut and ending up useless.

[cadillackid]

ive never had a split lock washer come loose in a low heat vibration area.... however I wont reuse them.. I have indeed notice them flattened out compared to new ones.. and I figured part of their purpose was creating an "edge".. so once I loosen one up its gone and I replace withe a new one..



that said ive also never had jam nuts come loose either..



I tried split lock washers on the exhaiust manifold bolts of my DTA360 that constantly come loose.. no dice.. and the split lock washers are flat as a pancake after a short time.. they apparently dont like the high heat under tension they give up...