Morris Minor Owners Club

ello

i'm cleaning up and de-rusting all the fixings I can from my van, as I like old things and want to preserve rather than replace where I can

but a friend has just commented that in the case of spring washers he would usually prefer to replace them in case they have lost their springiness over the years.

what do you think?

I'd be tempted to agree

For the sake of a few pence its worth replacing them. Otherwise the chance is they won' t do their job i.e. holding the nut tight.

*pootles off to namrick on me pooter*

thanks very much for your advice guys

Well I reuse mine if the washer has an obvious spiral to it, but make sure that I see daylight between the two ends, but not to the extent that it looks like it's opening up. Clean them up of course. Another thing that makes me favour useing them again is the fact that the new ones tend to have oversharp barbs on their ends, and I don't like chewing up components with them if the associated nuts need undoing.

I think it depends what they're holding and how flat they look. A healthy spring washer should be very spiralled and a swine to squash flat.

But if they're for none critical fastenings (not suspension, brakes, steering engine internals) then I can't see much harm whatever the case.

Usual tempering of content - I don't recall ever buying, let alone using, new spring washers on anything. And have yet to have something fall off as a result.

Packedup wrote:
Usual tempering of content - I don't recall ever buying, let alone using, new spring washers on anything. And have yet to have something fall off as a result.

Pretty much sums it up............. it doesnt really matter because in my opinion they do very little apart from chew up the parts. The actual amount of force they exert is minimal compared to the force that a tightened nut does. In otherwords if the nut comes so loose that the spring washer actually does anything the nut is loose anyway A correctly specified and installed fastner should not come un done. Look in an engine, modern ones do not use spring washers and they dont fall apart.

If I want a bit of extra security I will use a Nyloc or Loctite but never spring washers of the type fitted to Minors. I have rebuilt several A Series and B Series engines and left all the spring washers out .......... they did not fall apart.

mmmmmm cheers everyone! plenty to think about here