to glue or not?

[Martin Taylor]

What is the wisdom please about whether to use adhesive (and if so what strength) on the torsion bar fixed end clamp bolts. When all the batteries and packs etc are in accessing them for any retightening or adjustment is going to be complicated yet the bars are obviously under permanent and variable tension so presumably there is a risk of them loosening under use. All advice welcomed!
Martin

[Fredrik Jorgensen]

Hi Martin.

If you are using the supplied grubs i would recomend light loctite.

But they have one weakness, as you need to tight theese pretty good they will snap and go round easy. Thus making life a living hell to remove.

I would recomend to use the longer cap heads supplied or get new ones from a store. They have a bigger head and you can apply more tourqe on them so they fit.
If you choose this technique i suggest that you either sand or grind the bolt ends flat. As they are a bit round and can make the torsion bar travel out of alignment. If you do this you get a flat to flat surface wich is strong and firm.
Still use loctite light or medium to secure them.
You can see this in my or Richie Wignals KT saga.

Hope this helps out somewhat.
Regards
Freddie

[Martin Taylor]

Many thanks Freddie. I am using the cap heads for the reason you give but the tip on flattening the end to get a flat to flat fit makes obvious sense as does the thread adhesive. All I need now is for the temperature in my workshop to get up to something nearer the minimum that's needed for the adhesive to be effective so I can put your advice into action!
Martin

[Robert E Morey]

Martin,
I replaced the grubs with full size cap screws (like Freddie mentions) and then use blue loctite threadlocker on the screw.
Bob

[Martin Taylor]

Thanks Bob,
I followed Dale's approach and used shorter grubs screws + high strength adhesive for fixing the suspension shafts (CK0203) to the torsion bars so the whole arm/bar can be removed as a single unit if necessary. I do not have the required skills or machinery to cross drill the arms ( as per Dale and others) and in any case the direction of movement in the suspension will act to tighten rather than loosen as Mark kindly confirmed for me so I am hoping for zero unwanted movement!

I have also assumed that any in-use adjustment of the suspension arm angles can be done via the fixed end anyway.

My kit came with M6 x 20 Cap heads for the fixed end as per the instruction manual so perhaps we have a little confusion as to which end of the torsion bars we are talking about!

Either way the advice re adhesive is what I needed so again thanks.
Martin

[vincent hung shu yue]

Hello Martin,
If you want to run you KT, you better have a cross drill to the arm. And drill one more M5 hole on the same line of the inner shaft, use m5 grub screw, grind the ends flat, that will make a perfer tight. Grind the m4 grub ends flat also. Or you can also enlarge the m4 hole to m5, that will be more perfect.

Vincent Hung

[Dale jordan]

Hi Martin .. On the locking end , I use a nut under the cap head as a lock nut ... no locktite .. Dale

[Armortek]

Hi

There is absolutely no need to cross drill the suspension arms on any Armortek tank except the Panzer 111. The P111 is the only tank where the load tends to undo the thread, and then only on the left hand side. In all other cases the load tightens the thread. I would also not recommend the use of Loctite on either the torsion bars or the clamping screws. It is not necessary and can lead to severe serviceability issues in the future.

Mark

[Martin Taylor]

Thanks Dale for the "lock nut" suggestion. I had already followed your previous advice Mark about there being no need to cross-drill and will do the same re the no-adhesive approach to the fixed ends. Thanks also to Simon for his call telling me the same! It is always interesting to see the different approaches being taken and confirms one of the values of the Forum which is to see what others do and then do what seems right ( and practicable) for you!
Martin