Ariel Riding and Fixing 2023

[simon.holyfield]

Those studs are broken aren't they Steve?

[Steven.Carter]

They were stainless and just sheared off under the nut, constant hammering I guess

[Karol Burger]

stainless steel are unsuitable for fasteners.

[Steven.Carter]

Not sure though it was the studs fault. My leather gasket burt away on one side and the nuts got loose.

[simon.holyfield]

There's an awful lot of stainless steel fasteners out there in the world, in all sectors of industry. Like anything else, it's all about choosing the right grade for the application!

I had some correspondence with Clay Jones many moons ago about material grades. His studs and nuts have held the cylinders & head together on my SQ4 for years.

[Mick D]

Hi

I was wondering what could have caused a failure such as this and I think you have the answer in the, non standard, cylinder base gasket. In my opinion, leather will compress in use due to the heat cycling of the engine and the barrel nuts will lose torque. Unless you are going to engage in a strict regime of check torques I'd suggest you use a more conventional gasket material in your re-build.

I hope the loose cylinder block has not caused too much damage to the piston assembly, bores, or worse.

Regards Mick

[nevhunter]

You don't want thick base gaskets and it's possible your iron head motor pulling all that weight has detonated a few times. That's like bashing it with a hammer. Once one stud goes others won't be far behind. While there's a lot of different Stainless steels they do generally fatigue more than the High tensile steel ones. REPLACE ALL the studs . Be sure it's all flat and use a thin paper gasket. Nev

[Steven.Carter]

You don't want thick base gaskets and it's possible your iron head motor pulling all that weight has detonated a few times. That's like bashing it with a hammer. Once one stud goes others won't be far behind. While there's a lot of different Stainless steels they do generally fatigue more than the High tensile steel ones. REPLACE ALL the studs . Be sure it's all flat and use a thin paper gasket. Nev

I've learnt my lesson, I've done all of the above, I used Flexoid paper 1/2mm thick. And replaced all the studs, and I'm paranoid about checking they are tight

[paul.jameson]

For the record, I have gone to stainless steel for the fasteners on all my bikes without problems. Many I make myself, but critical items such as girder fork spindles or wheel spindles I get from ACME stainless. The change to stainless began when I rebuild my Red Hunter in 1990-91 so I think that if there was a problem I would have experienced it by now. But I don't use leather for gaskets!

[Vincent.vanGinneke]

Ah! a thin paper gasket ! you have a High Compression engine now !