On many of the after market parts and in my bolt kit I have a ton of Nyloc nuts. I learned the hard way that on mock up that finger tight is as tight as you can go and stand a snowball's chance in Hades of getting them off. I actually had to use a cutting tool on some of them or snap them off. I had no experience with them at all.

I have decided to use them on my control arms and on the four link. Are these things overkill? Can't I accomplish the same thing with a little LocTite? These projects CONSTANTLY evolve and these nuts can be a real impediment to progress,

Just want another opinion before I make ANOTHER trip to the hardware store.

Tim

I have like 65 Nyloc nuts for my bed wood. In stainlees of course. Seems a shame to waste them but.....

 

The way Id look at it, Is safe than Sorry.. Id rather cut and replace all the tight nuts & Bolts than have them back off and come louse at the wrong time... And Any time Ur movin down the road is the wrong time

 

If you are breaking off the nyloc nuts you have some other fit issues. I use over 15 nyloc nuts and bolts in a process that I set up at work. We are in the protoype stages and take them out without breaking them. Are you using SS combined with another type of metal?

 

Chris2
On my mock ups I Screwed them on and they WOULD NOT come off. I tried everything including a 4 ft cheater bar. This was the bumper bracket bolts. Had to cut them off. And yes they were the right nuts!

Mad
Love the concept but... I plan on using them on the suspension etc. I always err on the side of safety.

Not on the bedwood though.

Tim

 

Tim -

That you have to cut off nyloks is baffling to me. I use them all the time. Never a problem. I used them to attach all the front sheet metal and I've had that apart three times so far. I'll be using them on the bed wood also.

 

Im guessing from what I have read, Is most likly he is useing the high torque ones.. with the Red locks.. If U look U might notice there the Nyloc have difrent color nylon inserts.. White ( Low torque ) Blue ( Med Torque ) Light Red ( High torque ) and a dark red almost black ( PermaLoc ) Can be almost impossable to remove..

 

Randy
I have used several select terms other than baffled. You are correct--makes no sense wharsoever! I have noticed that the "nylon" does not seem to be the normal translucent white color. Seems harder than a normal nyloc nut.

This will require some investigation. Perhaps I have the MIL-SPEC or NASA version!

Tim

 

I hate to lay this on our Asian brothers, but I believe the problem is in the bolts as much as the nuts. My bed bolts (the ones with the 5/16"-square recessed heads, that no one makes a decent wrench for) took my son and I over 10 minutes each to tighten. To my eye, it looked like the bolts were not cut full-depth on the threads, and they were cut, not rolled, presumably because they are stainless. The finish on the threads was visibly rough. The nuts were hard to turn even before the nylon was engaged.

My beef with nyloks is that they are $1.25 EACH around here, in 7/16-UNF (for bed bolts), and that's not in SS. I need about 30 of them for attaching my fibreglass fenders, in 5/16-UNC. Want to sell yours, Tim?! No, seriously, you need them on the bed, lockwashers don't cut it for long, and on the bedstrips you really need them.

-- Ross

 

I'm befuddled as well. I did some reading and there are Nylok fasteners, and nyloc fasteners. Nylok (Nylok Fastener Corporation) invented the nylon patch style anti-vibration fastener in 1942. At that time, they were called the Fibre Locknut Company. They changed their name to Nylok Fastener Corporation in 1949. The original nylok fasteners use a blue nylon pellet, in the 1960's they introduced the nylon patch for fasteners. The company history is available on their web site if you want more info - although I think I already lost most of the crowd . I didn't find any info on the different colors for the nylon, but you could contact them to find out the details if you want.

Anyway, the patent on the original technology has long since run out and, although the trade name Nylok can't be used by anybody else, the technology can. So now we have nyloc fasteners made by Jimmy Joe Bob (sorry Bubba), plus every Joe and his brother.

Some of the off-brand nyloc fasteners have other locking features besides the nylon patch or pellet. I found that out the same way you did, Tim. The nuts are sometimes slightly squeezed sideways so the hole is just a little bit oval. It's very tough to see, but if you thread them on a bolt of the same material, they often cold weld together if they are really clean. Stainless is the worst from what other folks have told me. Other brands have had a press punch put a dimple in one of the nut flats which deforms the underlying threads. These are a little easier to detect, but they still bind up something awful if the bolt is of the same material and clean. Here is a picture of one of those buggers. You can just make out the round dimple on the left flat.



As a couple of the guys have mentioned, I've never had problems with the Nylok fasteners. As for the knock-off brands, I can sympathize with you Tim. Some of them seem to be designed to be permanent installations.

I guess I'd see if I could find some actual Nylok brand nuts or contact the company and get some. Good luck with the project and let us know what else you find out.

 

I believe the punched nuts are what is known as Prevailing Torque nuts.

 

The Nylon Locnut I use are all SS for marine Apps.. Like bolting a 225 Black Max to the back of ur boat.. we Use Prolock SS Light Red ( High torque ) There holdong Power is great and they are real tuff to remove, And with all the vibation a OB makes. they wont back off.. The color code I refor to are for Prolocks and maynot apply to other brands.. Hope this helps some

 

Tim

I've sold perhaps a hundred sets of S/S bed or fender bolts these past few years. Only one set with nylocks. Nobody ever complained they are coming loose using lockwashers. I've sold exactly one set with nylocks because the customer insisted. I had never heard of it being a big problem and nobody has complained. But Ross seems sure of it so I guess I'll start asking some of my customers to check theirs. Most of the F100 vendors include regular lock washers with their kits too. Interesting.

 

The one thing that worries me about attaching bed wood with the regular lockwashers and nuts is that with moisture and heat/cold, the bed wood swells and shrinks. This can serve to loosen the nuts. Once loose. the lockwasher is useless.

Mind you, I have had no problems with my cracked, warped, splintered bed wood falling out, but I have wondered why a few of the bolts came to have no nuts on them and wound up bouncing around loose inside the bed (total of six in 2 years).

And, since I bought a box of 100 of the nylok guys, what the heck.

Of course, when I go to remove the remaining bolts, they'll probably all be frozen up and rusted tight.

 

'fenders, I just finished my bed with a set of SS fasteners (from Dennis Carpenter or C&G, I forget which) and I used the lockwashers supplied. The problem I see with lockwashers is that to fully seat them, the bolt is so tight the bedstrip gets dented down at the bolt. With a nylok, you can tighten enough to keep the strip and board in place, but not so much that the strip is distorted. I agree with Randy Jack about swelling too. It's the same situation on the big bed bolts (thru the frame); you don't want to tighten so much that the rubber pad or wood is crushed. I will replace my lockwashers with nyloks if they don't hold at the torque I chose.

 

years back i had major headaches when using ss, the threads would gaul and u then had to snap the bolts, even though i had used a good quality lube on all threads ( caterpillar), apparently the same grade nut and bolt don't work, so since i started using different grade nuts/bolts most problems fixed, although the quality of the hardware comes into play, some manufacturers have lower production standards, add into the arena chinesse and other asian products and it can be a real mine feild some days.
i always buy my bolts in box quatity,( at up to 60% discount who would'nt) usually grade 8, they always come with normal nuts, so i use these while going through the initial build period, but alwaysuse nylocks on final asy, if for some reason i can't, i use locktite, i have never had a bolt drop out.
if i had to skin my knuckles working on something, i'd rather it be at the workshop than broken down on the side of the road( 110 - 120 deg days) because something fell off, and as others have said, u don't have to swing on a nylock, u can just snug it up when applicable.
cya...gary