Roll-cage tightening of bolts?

[adamr]

question to those who have had track cars or basically any car with a rollcage. A friend was in my car and he mentioned to me its a good idea to every now and again tighten the bolts on my rollcage.

My questions are
1. If i do need to check them every now and again how tight should i tighten the bolts? Rollcage tubing seems to be made from a flexible sort of metal. Again i also dont want to strip the bolts if they too tight
2. Whats the point of doing this. I dont see the car falling apart
3. Should i tighten as tight as it can go? Tried one bolt and it does seem there is quite a bit of room to get tighter. But left it in case this is a bad idea

im hoping Fazda has some knowledge on this with his mountains of experience with cars

 

[ponder]

3. Should i tighten as tight as it can go? Tried one bolt and it does seem there is quite a bit of room to get tighter. But left it in case this is a bad idea

Don't tighten them to much. It's something you do by feel through experince and then just give it a lttle pinch more. Dunno what the torque settings are but you should follow the manufacturers specifications.

There's also Locktite...

 

[adamr]

thanks Ponder. No torque settings for the rollcage though in the user manual

 

[Fazda]

Adam, they should be fixed in place with something like nyloc nuts, that you can tweak.

Simple flexing of the bodywork will loosen them, and that is not what you want.

Just check them every couple of weeks and make sure that they are tweaked to what you would call OK...NOT overtightened, as they will end up stripping. Suggesting a torque setting is probably pointless...if you want to go that route, use the same settings as the wheel rims.

Hope that is what you wanted to know

 

[adamr]

yes that is exactly it. Thanks a million Fazda, knew you knew something about these things

there a hex socket mushroom head screw on the other end of every nyloc nut, so need to hold the socket screw in place while tightening the nyloc nut ...

all nuts had play with them, the washers have fused themselves a little with time to the roll-cage tubing , so once i got past that initial resistance I noticed that all nuts had room to be tightened, so i tightened them to a point that i thought was "ok", I could have went a little tighter i suppose, but for fear of stripping a nut i left them

thanks guys

 

[Shake&Bake]

Guys and their nuts!
That's us men for ya

 

[adamr]

Guys and their nuts!
That's us men for ya

nuts and screwing

 

[bboy]

just don't crash, then it wont matter how loose your nuts are

 

[JK8]

Mmmmm
Why does it come loose?
Using it a kinky jungle gym?

 

[adamr]

Mmmmm
Why does it come loose?
Using it a kinky jungle gym?

mmm ... No comment

 

[Tosser]

Don't know much about roll cages, but with any motor vehicle theres bound to be a bunch of vibration. If it was me, I wouldn't worry about torque settings, just a good blob of locktite and use spring washers. Fasten to a sensible tightness, and check periodically.

 

[Pitbull]

Just put in Lock-nut or those Lock-nut washers. You will never have to tighten them again.

Just my 2c