Check your T/C rod's nut!

[siteunseen]

I had one fall off in my driveway luckily and put it back on this morning, torqued to 50 lbs per FSM.  Went to the other side and it was very close to falling off!  I changed all those bushings out a couple of years ago and never thought about the nuts backing off but they do.  I used Loctite on mine but another member said he put two nuts on each side.  I'm going to get a couple of extra nuts and do that myself someday.  It drives like it's on a rail again, very responsive in the curves.  Thought I'd share a little FYI. 

[Zed Head]

Do you have urethane front and back or the mixed rubber and urethane?  Mine would loosen when I had full urethane, until the end broke off of one of the rods.  Now I have rubber in the back, urethane in the front, double nuts, with the back nut a lock nut, and thread locker.

[siteunseen]

Poly in front, rubber on the backside.  A nylon lock nut is a great idea!  Thanks for that Nobel Prize winning thinking. 

[Chickenman]

9 hours ago, siteunseen said:

Poly in front, rubber on the backside.  A nylon lock nut is a great idea!  Thanks for that Nobel Prize winning thinking. 

Nissan uses Nylon locking nuts from the factory on these. What was on yours? Nylocks can only be removed a couple of times before they must be  replaced. ( Technically, they are one time use only ).

I always use Loctite on any suspension fasteners, even with Nylock nuts. ( Belt and suspenders )  Same with Brake caliper mounting bolts, drive shaft/half nuts and anything else critical. And I liked using the high strength stuff on larger fasteners ( 8mm and up ). The medium strength stuff I didn't trust, except for small fasteners ( less than 8mm ) .  On the Race cars, I always looked at a fastener and asked myself: . What would happen if this bolt fell out at 120+ MPH?  Usually the answer had visions of great carnage in a big ball of fire!!! I have a somewhat vivid imagination... but It's served me well over the years.

Edit: Same thing on street cars, although the MPH was usually less... and the carnage " slightly " less violent.....

 

Edited March 2, 2016 by Chickenman

[siteunseen]

It may have been a nylon nut, I didn't look like one but that does make sense seeing how it never caused any trouble until I removed them for the new bushings.  I had some blue loctite here so that's what I used for the time being.  Now that I know these will be a problem in the future I'm planning on redoing all the nuts I removed for the Energy Suspension kit.  I'll get some red Loctite for that job.

Thanks for the heads up. 

[zKars]

Let us review the correct way to install these components. That nut, nylock or otherwise, gets tighted to, yes, a well advertised torque spec, BUT there is an underlying assumption. That those big surrounding washers (assuming you've put them on the right way around) must FIRST contact the underlying (my new favorite word) central tube pipe thingy... THEN the nut gets torqued. 

If you get your butt totally fooled by squeezing mushy or too stiff poly-whatever-thylene (while trying to make things "better"), or have the assembly all out-of-alignment while you do it, and torque that nut to 50 and think your golden, well, then you may very well get into the situations above...

Just saying...

[siteunseen]

Hopefully I did it right by jacking the front of the car up first. Then I used a piece of 1x4 and a bottle jack under each side front tire, crammed the tire and wheel all the way up into the fender well. Then everything was loosey goosey enough to assemble all the thingys correctly. Then I coated the threads on the rod and the nut with loctite, torqued to 50 lbs then moved to the other side. I'm confident with what I did because that nut wouldn't torque against the rubber only, it hit the central tube pipe thingy.

[zKars]

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

Hopefully I did it right by jacking the front of the car up first. Then I used a piece of 1x4 and a bottle jack under each side front tire, crammed the tire and wheel all the way up into the fender well. Then everything was loosey goosey enough to assemble all the thingys correctly. Then I coated the threads on the rod and the nut with loctite, torqued to 50 lbs then moved to the other side. I'm confident with what I did because that nut wouldn't torque against the rubber only, it hit the central tube pipe thingy.

You must be congratulated for your eloquent response. What he said...

[Chickenman]

That is what is called a Jet nut or Torque Lock nut. They have " crimped " sections to prevent the nut from vibrating loose. However, they are a one time use only. They are also probably not factory as Nissan usually used Nylocks in critical areas..

Torque or Top lock nut. Note the crimped section. One time use only!!

 

Nylock nuts with Nylon insert:

Nissan OEM style Nyloc. Note the " Tall " height compared to picture above of SAE Nyloc:

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Chickenman
Added picture of Nissan Nylocs

[siteunseen]

1 hour ago, zKars said:

You must be congratulated for your eloquent response. What he said...

I get that a lot, thanks!

[bartsscooterservice]

Yeah I had to re-tighten mines also, they came loose. Have urethane..

[siteunseen]

4 minutes ago, Chickenman said:

That is what is called a Jet nut or crimp nut. They have " crimped " sections to prevent the nut from vibrating loose. However, they are a one time use only. They are alos probably not factory as Nissan usually used Nylocks in critical areas..

I've heard conical nuts before but jet nut is new to me. All my exhaust manifold nuts are that way. I bought them from Nissan too. If you could have seen what I took off you would believe me when I say they were original to that car. The bushings crumbled in my hands.