In a message dated 98-02-19 00:18:04 EST, kg5u@hal-pc.org writes:
<< Several weeks ago, I went up the tower to reposition my low A3
hardmounted to the tower at 40'. As I was backing out one of the
nuts from the lower u-bolt, I could feel the tension increasing.
I ran it back down, looked at the threads and they looked okay.
I started backing it out again, but it still got harder and
harder to turn. I finally broke the u-bolt. I went to the other
nut and it did exactly the same thing. I was concerned about the
other pair of nuts on the other u-bolt, but they came off just
fine.
These nuts and u-bolts were new from Cushcraft about 1.5 years
ago, so they weren't all that old.
What did I do wrong? What could I have done to prevent this from
happening?
73,
Dale Martin, KG5U
kg5u@hal-pc.org
http://www.hal-pc.org/~kg5u
>>
Dale, Stainless steel nuts and bolts have a tendency to seize up as they heat
up. Even new ones can seize. I found that if you spray some WD-40 on the
threads beforehand, the heat is dissapated quicker and they won'f seize. I do
this with most of the stainless nuts and bolts on new antenna assembly and
especially when using and electric or battery operated scewdriver.
Skip, KJ6Y
Communications Service Co
http://members.aol.com/kj6y/skip.html
818-887-3569
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