The serrations are supposed to grip once you get some tension on the nut.
Fred Albert Oddie patented his idea for a locking nut in 1938.
Oddie_GB_patent_pg4.pdf (39.7 KB)
Mine has Oddie nuts as well as Philidas nuts and Pinnacle nuts and Dundas nuts. Many ideas for solving the problem of nuts vibrating loose. Lots of fun stuff for us engineering history fanatics to study.
Seat the ball stud with a regular nut, then remove that nut and install the nylock.
Sound advice there, Tom!
Thanks for the references. It’s a clever system created at a more primitive time of the plastics. I am reusing mine, even thought the grip has gone.
john
You can hammer or squeeze down those tangs on the Oddie nuts a little bit and they’ll grip again.
Thanks Rob.
I did not see a rubber gator around your lower ball joint. I have a nice, fat gator around my new lower b/j. The problem is when I install the upright and tighten the lower b/j nut, the gator gets squeezed to near destruction. Is this right? Thanks.
john
That was probably a “before” picture. It has a gaiter now.
Yes, they scrunch down a bit. But should not get destroyed by normal motion.
Thanks Rob.
Question: How tight should be the stub axle nut? The shop manual tends not to specify values.
Also, am I looking at the head of the bolt hear or the nut? The parts catalogue diagram shows the bolt going through from front and I wonder if it’s showing this backward. Thanks again. (UPDATE… after making this post, I looked at Tadek’s Google album and noticed that his bolts go through from the back. I am pretty confident that the factory diagram is again incorrect.)
john
Mine go through from the front. I don’t know that it matters. It may be mine was assembled by a left handed guy. 
I don’t recall the thread on the stub axle, but I would use the SAE J429 Grade 5 chart with a friction factor of K=.15
Torque-Tension Reference Guide.pdf (132.3 KB)
Thanks Rob.
I got my suspension kit from Welsh. Yesterday, I noticed that the sway bar bushing holes are much larger than the sway bar. The hole is 3/4" in diameter while my sway bar is 9/16" in diameter. I called Welsh and he says the bushings are correct and I must have a non-standard sway bar. Are XK120 sway bars 3/4" in diameter, or maybe the later SE models are 3/4"? Thanks.
john
I read in Viart that the standard anti-roll (sway) bar’s diameter is 11/16" (near enough to 3/4"). But I think that must be for the later one. I believe the early one is thinner but don’t have the exact dimensions to hand.
There was a change in the diameter of the sway bar about Aug '52.
John, I believe you have the steel ring upside down. The felt ring goes on last, or first if you put it up against the stub axle carrier.
Now that you mention it, that is how I remember it!
Another thing I’d like to share… these pins are too long. As I was trying to pass the bolts through the backing plate and then through the left steering arm, I noticed the second bolt would not pass through. The head of the pin was fouling the arm. I took things apart and ground the pin by about 2mm, put things back and noticed the side of the nut was now fouling. I could’ve tapped the bolt through this time, but I took things apart again and shaved about 1mm from the underside of the nut. It would have been easier if I had ground the “cradle” of the steering arm, but I didn’t have the heart to do it. The right side may be okay, but I’m going to ground both the pin and the nut anyway before starting. I wanted to pass this on so you may learn from my misery. The ball joint came from Welsh.
john
Hi John…this has come up befor on the forum…some balljoints have the thread too long…so any replacement parts should be compared to your originals befor install…Also something to check is that the taper angle of the pin is the same as the angle that it fits into …especially your steering arm balljoints…some of the replacement balljoints are incorrect and dont mate correctly…Steve
Yes… + 20
Thanks Steve. The tapers appear the same and fit in place nicely. This is for the right side. I have shaved both the bolt and the nut.
john
