The joy of new nuts
Re-assembling an engine? Treat it to new nylocs
IHAVE FINALLY RE-FITTED the cylinder heads and rocker gear to the engine of my 1981 Morini Camel project, treating it to new nyloc nuts at the same time. The cylinder head nuts are a common M8x1.25 size, while the rocker gear nuts are a more obscure M7x1.00, though they’re now easy to find on the internet. The first number refers to the diameter of the bolt, the second to the pitch of the thread. On a European bike an M8 fastener will require a 13mm spanner, while on a Japanese bike it’ll probably have a 12mm head. The bigger the bolt, M8 and above, the more likely you are to find variations in head size and pitch, even if the shank is a common size. Be careful to get the right pitch nut on the right bolt. I buy a mixed bag of zinc plated metric fasteners containing common sizes every few years and then get specialist sizes as I need them. Make sure the bolts have 8.8 or 10.9 stamped on the head; that means they’re decent quality high tensile items.