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How do you clean your nuts?

munepit

munepit

3/4 ton status
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Ok guys I pulled my motor and every single nut is filthy, with dirt, oil and grease. I have been soaking them in a Folgers coffee tub and soaking them in degreaser. Is this the correct way. Should I Be using something different or WD-40? Should I use anti seize when I put theem back on? Thanks guys.
 
I try not to scratch down there when I'm all greasy but use irish spring when I do:haha:

I like to put new hardware on whenever possible its cheap easy insurance against failure:D
 
get some berrymans carb cleaner. leave em in for a while and theyll come out squeaky. comes in a paint can basically, and has a little cup you can stash parts in.
 
I use a old mayo jar and put the bolts and nuts in with a little mineral spirits, put the lid on and shake it up for a while until they are clean.

Works great every time, but sometimes you have to use a wire brush on the threads of the bolts.
 
I buy all new bolts. I hate using old cruddy hardware even after it's cleaned.
 
I just spray 'em off with the hose...... :haha:

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Chevy305 said:
x3 every nut and bolt I put into my truck is either stainless or grade 8
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Yep, don't even bother buying grade 5 stuff. As far as stainless, I use 316 fasteners, not crappy 18-8. Or I use the ARP high strength stainless that exceeds grade rating load. I use yellow CAD grade 8 mostly, but I prefer the Zinc coating. I use Zinc coated grade 8's aswell. Just a couple of drawers of hardware. Box is full of fasteners. Being organized is important. This is my old box. Now have a much bigger box with more room for hardware. Don't waste your time with cleaning. Buy the time you buy cleaner to clean the old bolts you could have bought new hardware. Not to mention the time it takes to actually clean them. Buy new and bolt it up and be done with it.

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When I pulled my motor, I took off around 100 or so nuts and bolts. It would cost me hundreds of dollars to replace them all, if I could match all the new hardware to the old. I wish I could do that. You guys are bad ass!
 
T
rdn2blazer said:
Yep, don't even bother buying grade 5 stuff. As far as stainless, I use 316 fasteners, not crappy 18-8. Or I use the ARP high strength stainless that exceeds grade rating load. I use yellow CAD grade 8 mostly, but I prefer the Zinc coating. I use Zinc coated grade 8's aswell. Just a couple of drawers of hardware. Box is full of fasteners. Being organized is important. This is my old box. Now have a much bigger box with more room for hardware. Don't waste yout time with cleaning. Buy the time you buy cleaner to clean the old bolts you could have bought new hardware. Not to mention the time it takes to actually clean them. Buy new and bold it up and be done with it.
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Can I come over? I could be there in a little while:D. That is friggin sweet!
 
I have a story about re-using fasteners. I still do re-use stuff, but I pick and choose now. Stuff like seat bolts, fender bolts, hardtop bolts I re-use.

Anyways, my story.

I had an 81 Jimmy for many years, and like most here it saw many different swaps, mods, etc. Well my buddy and I went wheeling this one time and my truck is kinda vibrating a bit on the trail when all of a sudden my tranny shifter and T-case shifter both drop and move back. Horrible sounds, and my mind is going 100 mph thinking of the possibilities as I'm pulling to a stop.

Turns out all the bolts for the Tranny and T-case crossmember backed out and dropped out one by one. We actually walked the back trail and found most of them and got it back together. The thing is those bolts and nuts had come loose a few times on me, and the last time they did I tightened the ever loving sh!t out of them.

The problem was all the threads were worn from being re-used so many times. I bought all new nuts, bolts and washers and tightened to the correct specs and when it came apart 10 months later all the bolts were still perfectly tight.

Rene
 
I've always reused stuff that I can, always cleaned them in a pan with paint thinner and a brush.

I do loc-tite, nyloc nut or use a lock washer on basically everything though.
 
Where do you get your bolts? Like water pump bolts? I have a $500 gift card to Lowes. I already used the other one I got from there. I invited some guy to my wedding and that's what he gave me.
 
Don't buy bolts individually at hardware stores, you get screwed.

Tractor supply sells grade 5 and Grade 8 by the pound.
 
dhcomp said:
Don't buy bolts individually at hardware stores, you get screwed.

Tractor supply sells grade 5 and Grade 8 by the pound.
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Sweet, I'm goin tomorrow. I'm getting a few pounds. Another question: why in the hell are all the bolts on my burb standard and metric? It pisses me off lookng for the right wrench.
 
I reused hardware until I took a class on nuts and bolts. Didn't really want to go at first but the boss made me. I was really wondering what all could be said about bolts that would take up 8 hours but I learned a lot. It was really cool to cause failures in a controlled enviroment to better understand how and why they fail.

Until you understand how a bolt actually works it's hard to rationalize why they shouldn't be reused. Everyone has knows u-bolts shouldn't be reused, this practice should be extended to all hardware that could catastrophically fail causing injury or leaving you stranded. Many of us are building our rigs to go where they were never engineered to go and in many cases we find ourselves miles from nowhere. I'd rather invest in new hardware than walk miles for a replacement after a failure.

here's a quick read as to why old hardware shouldn't be reused.

http://www.fastenal.com/web/services.ex?action=FEDS&article=Reuse

Put simply if a bolt is torqued correctly during it's initial install you will need to stress it passed it's engineered yeild in order to obtain the proper tourqe again. Imagine a bolt is a rubber band, the more the rubber band is stretched out the looser it gets.
 
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