Doing up, and undoing nut's and bolt's

[LONG_KEELER]

You are half upside down in the engine bay.

Your vari lens glasses and/or mirror are distorting your view of things, provided you can see anything that is. You wish your hands were as dainty as a supermodel.

Is there a fail safe system to know which way is doing things up and which way is undoing ?

Drain plugs seem a particular problem, particularly after finally finding the hole and then having to recover from the bilge.

Any other spannering tips welcome.

 

[NormanS]

Almost all threads for general purposes are right hand. That means that to "undo" you turn it anti-clockwise.

 

[sarabande]

unless you have a left-handed thread, the 'doing-up' motion is always an absolute reference to the motion of your thumb and first finger. i.e to tighten, move the pad of the finger towards the base of the thumb.

 

[superheat6k]

unless you have a left-handed thread, the 'doing-up' motion is always an absolute reference to the motion of your thumb and first finger. i.e to tighten, move the pad of the finger towards the base of the thumb.

Righty - tighty (clockwise)
Lefty - loosey (anti-clockwise

Not sure how to explain you know you are going the correct way upside down, I suppose you have to imagine you are looking onto the threaded end of the bolt. Been messing about too long with bolts to have to think about it too much.

But if you slide your right hand thumb up over your fingers from little finger to forefinger then if you were gripping a nut on a bolt this motion you would always be doing it up. Very very occasionally you might find a left handed bolt, but not as a normal fastener.

 

[Lakesailor]

If you have trouble working out which way it is you need to practice more. I have a friend who has a spatial awareness problem who can never get it right.

 

[Avocet]

All the above is assuming you're looking down on the bolt head. If you trying to get something under the engine pointing upwards at you, it's reversed, of course! If using a ratchet, at least you have the benefit of being able to twist it backwards and forwards a few times in your fingers whilst looking down on an imaginary bolt head and satisfying yourself that it's set the right way before turning it upside-down.

 

[alahol2]

unless you have a left-handed thread, the 'doing-up' motion is always an absolute reference to the motion of your thumb and first finger. i.e to tighten, move the pad of the finger towards the base of the thumb.

Unless you are left handed.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Lots of practice.













Or wish that you'd played with your mechano set more when you were growing up...

 

[penfold]

Righty - tighty (clockwise)
Lefty - loosey (anti-clockwise

What he said.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

One little trick which most DIY'ers will be familiar with.....

To get the nut or bolt started on the thread, it's often best to turn the nut or bolt slowly in the wrong direction until you feel a very light 'click'. This is hopefully the start of the nut or bolt sitting in at the beginning of its thread.

Change direction and hopefully threads re engaged and off you go.


Tell that to my new inner forestay masthead fitting that was all organised, with mast threaded and more pop rivet holes to back-up the bolts whilst the mast was off last week.

There am I with mast now stepped blowing in the breeze right at the top today and would the b' things line up? One bolt did and I then accepted defeat with the other three.

The rigger did say he would do it when he came along to measure the new stay....... good luck to him!!

 

[agurney]

You are half upside down in the engine bay.

Your vari lens glasses and/or mirror are distorting your view of things, provided you can see anything that is. You wish your hands were as dainty as a supermodel.

Is there a fail safe system to know which way is doing things up and which way is undoing ?

Drain plugs seem a particular problem, particularly after finally finding the hole and then having to recover from the bilge.

Any other spannering tips welcome.

Close your eyes; practise, and habituation.

Oh, and BTW, please throw away those apostrophes.

 

[William_H]

As said stop and think about the direction of turning when it is in a difficult (upside down) position and go carefully. No one said boat mecanics was easy. good luck olewill

 

[onesea]

One little trick which most DIY'ers will be familiar with.....

To get the nut or bolt started on the thread, it's often best to turn the nut or bolt slowly in the wrong direction until you feel a very light 'click'. This is hopefully the start of the nut or bolt sitting in at the beginning of its thread.

Change direction and hopefully threads re engaged and off you go.

That's my excuse when I start turning the wrong way!

As you say long as you feel it click and get tighter it often makes removing easier...

IMHO as long as you recognize you are going the wrong way it can make it easier so does not matter...

The other option is to use a socket set, with ratchet set it correct make sure all the bits are secure and then you know your going the right way...

 

[nigelmercier]

Doing up, and undoing nut's and bolt's

It is much easier if there are no apostrophes in the way.

 

[alahol2]

Bottlescrews are the ones I always have to double think. A left and a right hand thread in the same unit. Looking from above, a left hand thread to tighten is just counter-intuitive.

 

[macd]

As you say long as you feel it click and get tighter it often makes removing easier.

Scotty's advise was good, but he didn't write 'get tighter' but 'light click': it will only go tighter going the wrong way if you get it very seriously wrong. His trick works a treat on threads fine and coarse (my outboard petrol cap gets it routinely, given that the cost of a new thread is the price of a new tank).

One thing that tends to be sacrificed with impossibly-positioned fasteners is a washer. A bead of plasticine (or butyl, if you're feeling posh) will usually hold it in place unless the surface is oily, in which case a dab of grease usually works.

The other rule, whichever way the thread: at the slightest hint of binding, stop tightening, especially on stainless. Blind optimism is a very poor anti-galling compound, and even worse at fixing crossed threads.

And a quarter-inch drive socket set, preferably with a fine ratchet, is a boon in confined spaces.

P.S. you'll find inverted commas more versatile than apostrophes, since they come in clockwise and anticlockwise forms. Some of the better-engineered ones can even be used instead of split-pins.

 

[Lakesailor]

In really confined spots (like fitting winches to cockpit coamings with no direct access) I sometimes use gaffer tape to stick the nut to my fingertip and hold it against the bolt whilst twisting (or getting someone else to) the bolt.
On my car I even managed to tape the nut to my finger-end and get the thread to catch on by twisting my finger.
In an awkward spot once you've got the nut to catch the thread only tighten by finger until you are sure it's not cross-threaded.

 

[boguing]

Blind optimism is a very poor anti-galling compound, and even worse at fixing crossed threads.

Excellent. Should be a workshop wall poster.

 

[huldah]

I recently had to change the oil filter on the Perkins 4108 that hangs down next the engine mount. Knowing which way to turn was not a problem, however, the bolt refused to start, though it did jam at times. Very difficult with one hand, working from above. I like my threads to start at full thickness and height. This not only reduces the risk of crossed threads, it also prevents the thin part of the threads distorting. Cutting away the low, thin, start of the thread fixed the problem.

 

[Lakesailor]

Good point. Sometimes the "lead in" is more trouble than it's worth. When shortening bolts I normally wind a nut down the thread, cut the bit off and wind the nut off the thread again. This at least ensures that any distortion at the cut is corrected. A brief whizz around the end with a file takes off any burrs. Almost always works well.