Always!! Remember To Tighten Every Nut & Bolt!!

[chopt50wgn]

I normally don't put something on a thread that shows my stupidity but I hope this will help everyone who works on any car or truck.

  I have my 50 wagon inspected and on the road. Am taking short trips working out all the little bugs. This has been a 6 yr. project and since the chassis is all new I don't want any problems.

  I take the wagon on my day off over to my job to show everyone. They have only seen pics and wanted to show it in person. I get there with no problems, spend about 20 minutes there and am off for a cruise. I am driving slowly thru a curvy section of road which empties out to a major highway. I am slowing down when I feel a big bump and the wheel pulls to the right. I hit the brake and it goes to the floor.......panic!!! There is a car about 100 ft ahead waiting to get onto the highway. I slowly push the E-brake down and I get the car stopped just as the other car merged onto the road out of my way. I stopped about 30 feet from the major road.

 Turned the motor off and get out to see what happened. The right front brake line is hanging with the fitting still attached to the line. I had it flat bedded back to my shop. Took off the front wheel and the caliper came off in my hand. One of the bolts came out of the caliper mount and when I hit the brake, it jumped up, grabbed the inner part of the wheel and literally tore the fitting right out of the caliper. It also ripped off one of the ears on the mount and the wheel ground down and bent the caliper. I have Wilwood disc all round and luckily can get the parts to fix. I didn't hit anything or anyone and the only thing hurt was my ego for forgetting to check every the nuts and bolts. I did a check on the other calipers and  found they were just snug, not tight. They now have Blue Loctite on all the threads. Also did a check oh every nut and bolt on the chassis.

  Morale of this................ALWAYS TIGHTEN EVERY NUT & BOLT ON YOUR CAR !!!!

 I got very lucky and had this happened if I had merged onto the major highway and got up to speed, I shudder to think what could have happened.

 

[pflaming]

Before I put my truck out on the road, I put it on a lift and as i checked each bolt, I painted ithem silver. I drove it a week and repeated the lift using a yellow paint pencil as I checked the 2nd time. I found one not that was not TIGHT.

 

Been driving it now for about six months. When I greased the u-joints I checked the four nuts on the yoke. They were NOT loose but were NOT as tight as I thought they should be. Next week it goes back on the lift for a grease job and all bolts will be checked again at that time. 

 

So thankful all ended well. Frightening. 

[Oldguy48]

Ironic that this thread was just started.  I recently had my P15 up on jack stands, and noticed that a nut on one of the axle U-bolts had loosened, and was about 1/2" away from the spring mounting plate! The nuts had been properly torqued when installed, but nevertheless, one of them was loose.  So I replaced all the U-bolt nuts with Grade 8 nylon insert locknuts, but I'm still going to retorque them after a few weeks of driving.

 

Wayne

[Don Coatney]

Once after a 700 mile road trip I found this.

 

[RobertKB]

When I restored my '38 Chrysler there was not a nut or bolt that was not cleaned by wirebrushing or new. When I used and tightened them, I painted them black to match the frame. Anything not painted would have stood out and eight years down the road they all still seem tight. After reading this thread, however, I should maybe spend some time checking them again.

[Oldguy48]

After thinking about this post for a while, I decided to do some more checking and see if I could find more bolts that needed tightening.

 

Wow, did I ever.....Now I'm on a mission to try to check over the P15 prior to a trip to Ocean City, Md. in October.  I'm sure I'll find more bolts/nuts that need attention.  It's more than a little frustrating, since I used lockwashers, or locknuts, or threadlocker on everything, and used a torque wrench on many of the fasteners.  Oh well, it's just more time spent in the garage.

 

Wayne

[ssnowden]

Would you guys recommend Loctite for the fittings on the brake lines?  I have all new ones and I'm getting ready to put it together and don't want them coming loose on me. 

[Merle Coggins]

Would you guys recommend Loctite for the fittings on the brake lines?  I have all new ones and I'm getting ready to put it together and don't want them coming loose on me. 

 

NO!!! Just tighten them up good with a quality line wrench. They shouldn't ever come loose. They can get rusted in and difficult enough to remove over time as it is. If you locktite them you'll never get them loose without heating them up and risking damage to the cylinders.

[JIPJOBXX]

Back in my highschool days I had a rear 21 inch wheel come oft the hub and spun right by me as the car just went down to mother earth.  I followed that tire and rim for around 200 feet visually and it stopped in some bushes.  I got out of my car and retrived the rim and tire and remounted it back on the hub and away I went! Must have for got to tighten the lug nuts or something like that.  Oh and one time i had the main clevis brake pin on one of my model A's fell out because I did not secure that pin with a proper cottor pin. Oh I had a girl with me and when i stepped on the brake pedal it just went down to the floor and I know I was in deep trouble so I just turned oft the road and into a field and let it stop itself or applied the e-bake.

[Grdpa's 50 Dodge]

lock washers are a waste of time and money.  They actually make it worse since they crack,break and fall out making bolts loose.

 

A study was done and found they dont work as thought,,,its the torque which actually stretches the bolt slightly that works best.

 

I wont waste one red cent on them nor use them.

 

Now thread lock,locktite is a great product as self locking nuts

 

I will use a flat washer to take up space if needed but never a lock washer.

[Young Ed]

I'd like to see this study. I use split and internal and external star lock washers constantly.

[chopt50wgn]

I have found and also used thru out my whole car fine threaded bolts. The bolts I replaced that hold on the calipers are fine thread and every bolt under the car are also fine thread. I also have nylock nuts where they can be used and dome shaped lock nuts where they are near heat.

Most all motorcycles use fine threads as well due to vibration. Fine threaded nuts and bolts stay tighter and now I also make sure I use Loctite on everything.

I do agree with Grdpa 50 and I am not a fan of lock washers either. I had a conversation with a well known fabricator and he told me he never uses them. He said they work well when you are working with wood but stick with Loctite and a good flat washer when putting together anything with metal.