Thursday, July 18, 2024

Nuts & Bolts

One of the first things that they teach at Honda Technical Training is how to tighten a bolt. Simple right? Righty tighty, lefty loosey.

How much righty is the problem most people get wrong. Most overtighten screws and bolts under the impression that more is always better. However, the esteemed Kevin Cameron* pointed out that when a bolt is tightened properly it stretches ever so slightly. To tighten it further stretches the bolt to the point of failure and the stretchy tension is lost. This will not necessarily cause the bolt to break but will degrade to bolt's ability to stay in place.

At Honda Tech the student is presented with a board full of nuts and bolts. They are then asked to tighten them as they thought best. Finally, the instructor comes around with a torque wrench and measures the amount that was used. 99% were over-torqued !!

Every auto and motorcycle manual comes with a list of torque values to correctly tighten the engine and vehicle. Check it out. And pay attention. Kevin is watching !!

* https://www.cycleworld.com/story/blogs/ask-kevin/nuts-and-bolts-of-nuts-and-bolts/


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