Castle nuts and cotter keys

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by Pete

Some of my best friends live down under.

Sorry for your loss.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Mike V. Florida

Sorry for your loss.

Good one....LOL

[Lycoming-8]

One of the biggest improvements over Castle & cotter is what Mercedes uses for the bearing nuts on front axles. The Castle nut is replaced by a horseshoe nut with a screw passing thru the two open legs of the shoe. Once the nut is tightened to just right amount for the bearing, the screw is tightened to lock the nut in place. Probably a tad more expensive, but there is no too loose or over tight situation to get the castle to line up with the hole thru the spindle !!!

[Pinesdune]

Originally Posted by BILL WILLIAMSON

SMOOTH doesn't matter, it's the off set ends at the slit, that "dig" in & lock stuff.
I "wonder" if they make L/H lockwashers for L/H threaded BOLTS/NUTS????
Some say that lockwashers don't work against CAST IRON, YES, they do, just look, they "dig" in good, better than a flatwasher/lockwasher combo!

Bill Puzzled?

I've had bad luck using lock washers on cast. Maybe I was using cruddy washers, maybe it was hard cast, it was twenty ish years ago now so I can't remember even what tractor it was on, but I tried washers over the wire and got bit, had to go back and wire it up. Never tried it again.

[BILL WILLIAMSON]

Originally Posted by Lycoming-8

One of the biggest improvements over Castle & cotter is what Mercedes uses for the bearing nuts on front axles. The Castle nut is replaced by a horseshoe nut with a screw passing thru the two open legs of the shoe. Once the nut is tightened to just right amount for the bearing, the screw is tightened to lock the nut in place. Probably a tad more expensive, but there is no too loose or over tight situation to get the castle to line up with the hole thru the spindle !!!

I first encountered that kind of nut on VW Bugs, many years ago.
Bill W.

[ian Simpson]

Sponsored Links (Register now to hide all advertisements)

Originally Posted by BILL WILLIAMSON

I first encountered that kind of nut on VW Bugs, many years ago.
Bill W.

I met them on conveyor belt and elevator machinery more then fifty years ago, but only on really big stuff, typically on the ends of rollers and drive shafts with diameters greater than 1 inch. There was also another variety where the nut was cut more than halfway across at ninety degrees to the thread and a screw inserted parallel with the thread. When the screw was tightened, the nut was deformed locking it in place. Can't remember the name of the things.

[glenn in camino]

I always use them.

[CarlG]

I got tired of hunting down the exact cotter pin, I built this:

[G&N Farms]

Just use a nail. Drive it through and hit it with a hammer to bent it a bit.



As a professional auto tech, I saw this method a lot. Always use a new pin, it's a pin to me, a key goes in a slot.

To Ian, when I raced bikes in the 70's, we had to safety wire everything and I mean everything.

[AF Texan]

I realize we're not talking about aircraft maintenance, but in my experience, castellated nuts are used when a minimum of torque is required...hence a cotter pin to keep the castellated nut in place. A lock-washer is designed to be used with a plain nuts when self-locking or castellated type nuts are not applicable. The spring action of the washer prevents the nut from becoming loose. To me, it sounds like the castellated nut has a specific purpose if installed on a certain component for a specific function. Just my two cents....