The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 1954 235 rocker arm push nuts.

[img]https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthread...ame/16243694666743798942508483389441.jpg[/img]On top of the rocker arm lock nuts there are also a spring steel push nuts. That I assume helps keep the lock nuts from loosing up. I took off the valve cover to adjust the rockers and noticed that three of those push nuts had fallen off. Do I need these to be there? And if so, where to buy new ones?

Thanks in advance.
Elmo.

Can’t say I have ever seen spring nuts on top of the rocker adjustment nuts. My ‘59 235 does not have them. Maybe thats why their coming off.

Can you post a picture of the rocker with the spring nuts installed?

Those are called Pal nuts, are used on aircraft, external places, not on internal locations, among other places. Not required on rockers, small enough to be sucked into dangerous places.

Ed

They're called "Pal-nuts", and they aren't original equipment. Pitch them into the nearest circular file and don't bother to reinstall them. They're used on 235 connecting rods in some applications, and they're also worthless there, although Chey did use them as OEM for some silly reason.
Jerry

Wow you want to get rid of them. If they came off they could make an awful mess.

Ditto to ather responses. Be gone with em. Extra unnecessary parts gettin flung around in there is not an ideal situation.

I will remove them tonight and discard. They were there when I bought the truck.

I wonder if the pal nuts were deemed necessary to keep the connecting rod dippers in place, then continued using them on the later 235s just because.

Probably not- - - -the PAL nuts wouldn't have enough strength to retain the dippers- - - -they're always installed between the rod nut and the cap. The force of the dipper hitting the stream of oil several times a second would rip the sheet metal nuts off.
Jerry

Isn't it amazing what we sometimes find both in and out of old engines. I believe the reason is due to some folks believing that simplicity of an engine meant simple applications. Maybe Jerry can go on the Greasy Spoon and elaborate, he has to have some interesting stories. Ed

The setup on my 216 was rod cap, dipper, rod nut, then pal nut.
I was suggesting that the extra stress caused by the dippers would theoretically call for something (like pal nuts) to ensure that the rod nuts stayed in place.

Rod nuts stay tight because the bolt stretches a little and creates enough internal tension to keep the nut from backing off. I can't imagine a loose rod nut being kept from backing the rest of the way off the bolt by a palnut. A 3/8-24 rod bolt usually gets 35 ft-lbs. of torque, and a palnut might handle a maximum of 10 ft-lbs. on a really good day.

I've seen ARP rod bolts that needed 70-80 ft-lbs to get the specified amount of stretch on the bolt, which is how we measured the "torque" on racing engine connecting rod bolts.
Jerry

We all have names we've used for years. I call a lot of fasteners "Tinnermans", others call some fasteners Palnuts. Tinnerman and Palnut are company names. Each company has many styles of fasteners. Mr. Tinnerman started his company in the mid 1920's and two guys started Palnut at the same time. These companies have been merged and unmerged, bought and sold. They were purchased by a French fastener maker A. Raymond. Not sure where they ended up. I believe the last I saw was Palnut was absorbed into Tinnerman and A. Raymond absorbed Tinnerman and is known as A. Raymond-Tinnerman.

There are push nuts, cage nuts, J clips, U clips, speed clips, etc. Each was invented by either Tinnerman or Palnut. The particular one here which is sold by A. Raymond is one of many palnut designs. It is known as a Threaded Hex Lock-Nut. It can be stand alone or used as a jam nut. After torqueing it down on top of a hex nut it's teeth lock against reversing. Many vendors sell it. It is a stamped spring steel fastener.

If these fasteners were used in AD and earlier motors, It doesn't seem like a good idea. They are mostly relegated to: Toys, appliances, HVAC, consumer electronics and so on. I do not see them in any valve train pictures in old shop manuals online or the mention of them. I haven't seen them all of course.

Tinnerman-Palnut products are used all over our modern vehicles.

I've seen them used on the rod bolts of just about every flathead MOPAR six I've ever opened up. They don't work any better there than they do on GM products- - - -they're just excess hardware. I've found more than a few buried in sludge inside an oil pan.
jerry