the find the "scary" thread reminded me of something

Not very long ago I was yanking a power unit and the thing "came adrift". Luckily the weight wasn't too far off of the planet so no damage was done, but it WAS scary.

What I found was that the odd ball nut/stud that I have always used to attach the chain to the engine had failed. I know, I know, everyone has their special way of attaching the lift chain but I have never had any sort of failure in over a zillion years of doing this so it WAS unusual. What I do is remove the rocker cover place the chain link over the exposed studs and screw down the rocker cover retainer nut/stud along with the thick washer.

What happened in this case was that the nut/stud, #460-112 in the Moss catalog, actually broke at the point where the hex met the lower female threaded boss. In studying the break I was able to determine that the machine boring the thread boss had been allowed to go too far up into the piece making the aforementioned junction only a thin shell. There wouldn't have been any way that a mechanic would have been able to tell before hand, and I can't think of anyone who is so fanatical as to depth measure the bore, unless it might be perhaps John Moore LOL. In further looking I realized that both of the OEM stud/nuts had been replaced by the owner with new ones, probably made overseas.

I suppose that this post is just a word to the wise. Keep and use your OEM fasteners if you possibly can and and if you must replace them take the time to depth measure the bosses and compare them to the OEM ones before you start hanging any heavey weight on the studs.

Jack