I just ran into this in Carroll Smith's book that I think really helps
in this debate:
"Myth: "Elastic stop nuts are single use items. If reused, they will
not lock reliably." This one started in the infancy of the elastic stop
nut when the locking collar was made from organic fiber rather than
nylon and it wasn't particularly reuseable. Those days have been gone
for a long time. Any of the current families of self-locking nuts can
be reused many times."
"In most applications the rule of thumb is: "If there is no
visible damage to the thread and you cannot spin the nut with you
fingers, it is OK to reuse it." Obviously this is not true in the case
of crtical tension applications which require high tenisle nuts. I do
not resuse critical nuts, locking or not. IN my world this includes all
connecting rod and most cylinder head and amin bearing cap nuts. "
SEcondly...
For those of you buying boxes at Home Depot, OSH, etc...
Don't forget that the nuts have grades too... Grades 8, 5, and 2 are
typical..
And I would not be surprised to find some of you are putting grade 2 on
your cars. Buying in quantity is THE best way to go... and it's great
to be able to replace 'em as you run into 'em... but Be careful out
there!
--Justin
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