Note the grade-8 washers
I have recently noticed that the 9″ Ford rear end in bowtie6 has started leaking. Nothing severe mind you, but just enough to make a mess of the garage floor. So I jacked the car up and slid my new Race Ramps under the rear tires. As it turned out, all ten nuts holding the third member in place, were loose.
But why? Sure, wear and tear might cause things to loosen up. Not wanting to leave this up to chance, I did a handful of Google searches and sure enough… According to what I read on several websites this is a common issue on 9″ Ford rear ends. The solution is to use copper washers on each stud.
In Search of Copper Washers
As you can see in today’s featured picture, we used grade-8 washers when we put the rear end together. At the time, that is all we had available and after a short conversation with my cousin Jim, he told me he was not able to source the right copper washers. Hmmm…
Two sets of Ford copper washers
So I searched eBay for some copper washers for a 9″ Ford and success! I found a vendor offering “original” vintage Ford washers exactly for this application. After reading the auction, I promptly clicked the “buy-it-now” button and ordered two sets for $6.00 per set of 10 washers. Not bad.
Delivery was very quick: the washers arrived in yesterday’s mail. Cool! Today, I lifted the car up again and crawled under to replace the grade-8 washers with the new copper replacements. According to my research the washers are very soft. As the Nylock nuts compress the copper washer they “seat” and this prevents the nuts from backing out. Of course, this never happened with the hardened grade-8 washers.
Washers Replaced
So here is what the new washers look like.
The new copper washers are smaller than the earlier ones (see the featured photo for the “before” look). The advantage is they have somewhat collapsed to take shape. This is the same principle behind the soft aluminum washer on the oil drain plug on my Honda S2000. Another problem solved!
Happy New Year
And so, I bid you all a Happy New Year. I hope 2017 brings you great fortune and good health. Cheers!