Printable Version | Subscribe | Add to Favourites
New Topic New Poll New Reply
Author: Subject: Locking Tabs
timwest167

posted on 10/3/05 at 11:10 AM Reply With Quote
Locking Tabs

Just about to fit my cortina calipers to the uprights. The donor calipers had a locking tab under the bolts, though they are all rusty and I don't want to reuse them. Local motorfactors sy they arn't available anymore...

Can I use thread lock instead of the locking tabs, reuse the donor ones, or does anyone know where to get new ones?

Tim

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
clbarclay

posted on 10/3/05 at 11:14 AM Reply With Quote
Thread lock would probably work (Never tried it yet though), or make a new locking tab out of some steel plate/strip that is close to the same thickness as the origional.

The other option is to drill a small hole through the heads of the 2 bolts and use a peice of locking wire on them.

[Edited on 10/3/05 by clbarclay]






View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
DaveFJ

posted on 10/3/05 at 11:57 AM Reply With Quote
I am intending to use locking wire for the disk bolts but am feeling a little wary of using them on the caliper bolts - Will the SVA man have anything to say on the matter I wonder ?





Dave

"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
JAG

posted on 10/3/05 at 12:13 PM Reply With Quote
I used threadlock and the SVA man said that was adequate.





Justin


Who is this super hero? Sarge? ...No.
Rosemary, the telephone operator? ...No.
Penry, the mild-mannered janitor? ...Could be!

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
Bananaman

posted on 10/3/05 at 12:18 PM Reply With Quote
Why not just use spring washers?

Cheers
Michael

View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
wicket

posted on 10/3/05 at 12:19 PM Reply With Quote
As the donor vehicle had locking tabs I believe some SVA engineers like to see the locking tabs.

I made some, see my posting with the attached pdf here.

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=16941

View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
NS Dev

posted on 10/3/05 at 01:03 PM Reply With Quote
Spring washers are worse than nothing, thy usually tend to try and squeeze out from under the bolt head and can occasionally actually cause the bolt to then come undone!

I always bin the locktabs and use loctite. Pah to the SVA man on that one, what a load of cobblers. The Opel manta uses an almost identical setup to the cortina and they don't have loctabs!!

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
melly-g

posted on 10/3/05 at 01:09 PM Reply With Quote
I`ve made some for the calipers and for the disks, I could probably do some more for you if you want.
View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
clbarclay

posted on 10/3/05 at 01:38 PM Reply With Quote
Spring washers don't like high torque. You tighten up a bolt to much with a string washer, and the washer just splays out.
A correctly torqued up bolt should hold itself surprisingly well.

locking tabs and thread lock are about par for holding a bolt, but thread lock is easier to do up, and can be a lot easier to remove.

Good high tensile locking wire is the probably the best, push the twisted ends down against the caliper and the SVA mans ball shouldn't trouble it.

[Edited on 10/3/05 by clbarclay]






View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
DaveFJ

posted on 10/3/05 at 01:48 PM Reply With Quote
spring washer - yuk.... nuff said

torque alone - never! (on a part like this)

lock tabs - ok but hard to get hold of for some things

locking wire - best solution but leaves sharp ends to cut Mr SVAs fingers

thread lock - OK but never trusted it myself





Dave

"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
clbarclay

posted on 10/3/05 at 01:57 PM Reply With Quote
Regards torgue on its own, just look at all (or nearly all) the internal bolts on an engine. There only torqued up.


On the subject of locking tabs, the big problem with them is that each tab is a use once item.

Good locking tabs should come with several different tabs, partly so you can get one square on a bolt flat, but also so that you an use a different tab when rebuilding a component.






View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
timwest167

posted on 10/3/05 at 02:05 PM Reply With Quote
Thanks for the help...

I probably don't need the tabs for the discs to hubs as only one out of the two tabs are unused.

I'm an electronics engineer and not as mechanically mined as most of you... what do you mean by locking wire? How is it used for locking the bolt?

Thanks

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
Triggsy

posted on 10/3/05 at 02:13 PM Reply With Quote
Westfield sell them. See here

http://www.westfield-sportscars.co.uk/shop/product.asp?P_ID=137&strPageHistory=search&strKeywords=tab&numPageStartPosition=11&strSearc hCriteria=any&PT_ID=all

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
DaveFJ

posted on 10/3/05 at 02:15 PM Reply With Quote
The biggest difficulty with locking wire is drilling a hole in the head of the bolt in the first place!

Lock wire can be dopne by hand but a far better result is obtained by using special pliers which are used to twist the wire. The essetial idea is to physically lock the compnents by 'pulling' the bolt (or whatever) in the 'tightening' direction. sorry that doesn't sound very clear

The most common fault in wire locking is when people go in the wrong direction and then it becomes pointless

As for the use inside an engine, the major parts on my rebuild will be locked!

this piccy shows some good locking techniques








Dave

"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
clbarclay

posted on 10/3/05 at 02:25 PM Reply With Quote
An easier way to wire the bolts together is to do as bellow.

Also my eqperiance says that any pair of pliers will do within reason.




[Edited on 10/3/05 by clbarclay] Rescued attachment locking wire.JPG
Rescued attachment locking wire.JPG







View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
britishtrident

posted on 10/3/05 at 03:47 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by clbarclay
Regards torgue on its own, just look at all (or nearly all) the internal bolts on an engine. There only torqued up.


On the subject of locking tabs, the big problem with them is that each tab is a use once item.

Good locking tabs should come with several different tabs, partly so you can get one square on a bolt flat, but also so that you an use a different tab when rebuilding a component.



But they are Loctited any bolt subject to vibration should never never used without some for of anti-slackening locking --- spring washer, star washer, serrated head locking tab, wired, "self locking" nut or good old Loctite depending on application. Simple spring washers have served the automotive industry well for a century don't underestimate them, they have only gone out of fashion for reasons of production economics.

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
Alan_Thomas

posted on 10/3/05 at 03:49 PM Reply With Quote
I used the original locking tabs for my cortina calipers and only bent up one tab on each bolt (thats how they were when I took them off the cortina in the scrapyard).
My SVA man insisted that I bend the other tab over as well. He let me do it while he was checking something else.
All goes to prove SVA is "at the inspector's discretion"

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
David Jenkins

posted on 10/3/05 at 04:28 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by DaveFJ
As for the use inside an engine, the major parts on my rebuild will be locked!



You'd never guess that you were once an aircraft fitter!

David






View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
MikeRJ

posted on 10/3/05 at 11:21 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
But they are Loctited any bolt subject to vibration should never never used without some for of anti-slackening locking


Big end and main bearing bolts are not usualy thread locked, and I would think they are subject to more vibration and cyclic loads than any other fastener on a car.

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
britishtrident

posted on 11/3/05 at 07:59 AM Reply With Quote
Traddiionally going back to dark ages big end bolts either used "Symonds" nuts, were wired (!), split pinned or had locking tabs.

On Imps we used get rid of the locking tabs on the big end bolts because they got hammered thinner at high rpm, the (always new) bolts and threaded holes were cleaned properly then Loctited and torqued. These days big end and flywheel bolts are usually speced by the manufacturer to be replaced every time they are removed and the new replacement bolts are supplied with a blue coloured locking compound pre-applied at the factory.

One of the big causes of bolts slackening off is using bolts that are either to big a diameter for the torque employed or have too short a length of the shank under tension --- both result in the bolt not being stretched elastically enough.

[Edited on 11/3/05 by britishtrident]

[Edited on 11/3/05 by britishtrident]

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
NS Dev

posted on 11/3/05 at 08:38 AM Reply With Quote
Hit the nail on the head there Britishtrident, no black magic to it.

Would just add, one other cause of loosening (pretty much the same as your other 2 causes) is using too coarse a thread for the application, meaning that it is impossible to apply sufficient torque to stretch the bolt properly before the threads "pick up".

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
timwest167

posted on 14/3/05 at 11:00 AM Reply With Quote
melly-g - thanks for the offer. I've sent a u2u.
View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
DaveFJ

posted on 17/3/05 at 01:46 PM Reply With Quote
A couple of pics of my recently wire locked Brake disks........


wirelocking1
wirelocking1



wirelocking2
wirelocking2


A small amount of 'anti-fret' tape will be applied to stop the wire fretting against the hubs where they touch.

[Edited on 17/3/05 by DaveFJ]





Dave

"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member

New Topic New Poll New Reply


go to top






Website design and SEO by Studio Montage

All content © 2001-16 LocostBuilders. Reproduction prohibited
Opinions expressed in public posts are those of the author and do not necessarily represent
the views of other users or any member of the LocostBuilders team.
Running XMB 1.8 Partagium [© 2002 XMB Group] on Apache under CentOS Linux
Founded, built and operated by ChrisW.