[TowerTalk] MonstIR/Orion problem

[Rick Karlquist]

UpTheTower at aol.com wrote:
> Howdy -
>
>>     BTW my experience with M2 Orion rotators is that  over the years, just
> about 100% of the mast clamps have eventually loosened up.  After much
> research
> and investigation, I attribute it to bolt stretch;  particularly since
> nothing
> you do to the nuts (LokTite, double-nutting, etc.)  seems to help.
>

I don't know if this analogy is valid, but I had trouble with the
head gasket blowing on my Diesel Rabbit.  The 3rd time it blew,
they said they replaced the head bolts with ones that were intentionally
designed to stretch elastically.  Thus they acted as springs and
took up any slack in the system.  In any event, the head gasket
never blew again, and I put 100,000 miles on that gasket.

The physics of the slip-nott don't necessarily make sense.  If
you have a certain coefficient of friction, and a certain amount
of clamping force, in theory, it shouldn't matter if you distribute
the force over a large area with a slip nott or a smaller area.
The slip-nott is not engineered to have more total clamping force.
Maybe it works for reasons I don't understand.

Rick N6RK