My ten pennorth broadly endorses the re-use of nyloc nuts providing they
are VERY recent fitments and haven't been overtorqued. How recent is VERY
recent? I don't know for sure, but days rather than weeks.
As far as re-using ones that have been in a nut bucket for a long time and
might have already been used more than once, I'm not so sure.
There's obviously a very important cost/safety/peace of mind compromise
here which only the individual can satisfy him/herself.
Personally, I think I'd be very wary about using old nyloc nuts for these
particular purposes. All I'm thinking about mainly is that we probably
can't guarantee the nylon collar hasn't 'brittled' with ageing and previous
flow into the threads of a former application. I think this is one area of
the car where I'd be a lot happier with entirely new nuts and the
aquisition cost is very much in bullet biting country.
John Macartney
Now in the same museum as the cars he sold when they were new
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