Posted by Ken on October 18, 1999 at 20:19:59:
In Reply to: Head Gasket - Watch out! posted by Bob on October 05, 1999 at 17:51:06:
Across multiple threads I have heard about people needing to tighten various bolts and such. From my experience with mechanical system for electronics I have seen two critical issues. First you need to torque to specification and second was to use 'loctite'. It will be harder to eventually break the bolt but loctite works real well to keep things from getting loose due to vibration. I have not heard of loctite being suggested.
The key is to get the right flavor of loctite and maybe some of the mechanics out there can specify the formula to use. I hesitate to suggest any type that may be on the hardware shelves because of temperature considerations. Loctite 243 is good to 300 deg. F and type 272 is good to 450 deg. F .
Vibration is the root of much evil. Listen for new sounds that you have not heard before and figure out where it is coming from and get rid of it. If you feel or hear a new sound or vibration, you can count on there being some mechanical wear taking place that was not happening before. Vibration wears and ages mechanism. The more vibration, the quicker the aging process and the sooner a repair is going to be necessary.
Wire bundles need to be kept tightly bound and secured in place so that they don't shake around. In my industrial work we used lots of tie wraps and RTV. A big secret on electronic assemblies was the use of strain relief loops of wire leads and cable wires at the point that they go into connectors or where parts are soldered into circuit boards. The strain relief loops act as springs to capture/buffer vibrations like a spring is used with a shock absorber.