well welcome back to Steve Robb reviews today we're going to talk about thread lockers
liquid thread lockers there's gel thread lockers there's tape thread Locker there's a whole host of
different thread lockers out in the market this is the only thread Locker that I use every time
I'm working on an automobile and it's locked at 2:43 I don't explain why that's the only one that
I use for a medium strength application okay this is just a generic brand low strength you know like
this is only for a separate reason and it's you know what it's hardly holds it on there but that's
in some situations what you need and the third one is this one right here and that's a high strength
now I believe both these companies lock tight and Permatex are all one company to tell you the truth
last time I checked I believe they were I'm not too sure now but yeah the high strength and this
high strength I only use if it's completely bone dry clean it can't be oily can't be greasy can't
have anything on it it's got to be clean and that's what I want to talk about here first I
got a little bit of a display here behind me I'll talk about that a second but when I was working
on general motors way back in the 70s there was none of this stuff so I'm gonna show you what we
used back then and we progressed on to today but thread lockers are not just thread lockers like
a lot of people think I had to take a course when I was in quality control when the thread
lockers first showed up and I'm gonna say it was around the 80s the late 80s that we've seen thread
locking come in on the assembly lines and yeah it's not just for using to have some kind of a
mechanical fastening you know so that the fastener doesn't loosen up it's also there for a corrosion
inhibitor is to prevent moisture and intrusion into the threads as well on your fastener so
that's that's one thing that maybe a lot of people don't know and the 243 that's only good for like
quarter inch to three quarters of an inch size fastener and surprisingly a lot of people think
that the liquid or paste or tape fasteners you know called lock tight everybody using generic
name and lock tight but they're you know thread lockers the 243 can take up to 72 hours depending
on the fitment and depending on the temperature there's a lot of variables involved so a lot of
times you just can't put something on and expect an hour later that it's going to be it's gonna be
fine because no no it's not going to be fine you know there's a lot of variables involved so this
one here the ones that I'm using are primer less now there is some fasteners out there that yeah
you have to put a primer on first and then you put your your Loctite or thread Locker as they
call it you know on there but I'm going to show you here on my little bit of a display here on
the progression of how it's gone over the years and why I like using the thread Locker and the 243
and the reason why you should use the 243 and I've seen too many I would say even videos on YouTube
when I've seen guys just using the regular you know thread Locker that's not like a 243 and you
know what the models just be putting Vaseline on there cuz it's not gonna make a difference and I'm
gonna explain why well let's just start off for a lot of use I'd have never used a liquid thread
Locker like this Loctite 243 before it's just used to go on the threads here and you put some on or
you put it on your knot and in the absence of air over time it's more or less just plastic to tell
you the truth that fills in the voids and they come in different strengths low medium high they
got high heat they have all kinds of different ways of attaching a fastener and using everything
else except one of these now you can see this one here on the back of the nut itself it uses
a clamping force from these little ridges this one here is a nylon lock and it uses this little nylon
piece here which is plastic to lock on and then you got this style you've always seen and this
is a combination of a nut that has one of these attached to it and this is an outside star washer
and they uh come with an inside star washer so in the automotive industry yeah this was the first
one that came out was like this look there and you could see that it's on the fastener already
of course you can't have an assembly line running and have people with models going around squirting
it on here so this was the first style that came out and that's what you're going to see today in
most of the automotive world today is this side applied here and of course it is not just there
as a clamping force to prevent the fastener from loosening up it's also a corrosion inhibitor and
so why the thread Locker 2:43 well I'll tell you something I've done my own experiments over the
years and this is what I was told when I took the course you can't use anything except the
2:43 and of course it comes in a high-strength as well and I believe a high heat but if you're
using a thread Locker and it the surface is not completely clean of oil and grease and you know
I've seen so many times people spraying their parts down with wd-40 and all kinds of things
and then when they're finished they throw some thread Locker on and they think it's just fine
and dandy well this one here is the only one that's made in this particular brand they all
have different brands Permatex makes their own as well they have you know the same red locker
that is compatible with this Loctite here and these guys just try it sometimes yourself I
have no affiliation with any of these products but I have used just a regular medium strength
thread Locker and then use the 243 tighten a bolt on there one that's greasy one that's not and try
the two different types and you'll see that if you don't use the 243 that has the I guess you would
just say that it's designed to work with having some form materials like oily surface and a little
bit of grease and that kind of stuff it'll work where the other ones don't and I've tried the two
fastener side-by-side and the one that was greasy that didn't have the proper thread Locker on it
well you can loosen it up real easy and that's what I see a lot of times well I hope you like
that little bit of a when I consider the knowledge that I picked up over the years on thread lockers
I hope you enjoyed that and it is true about if you do you know work on automobiles and you're
just putting the regular thread Locker on there and it's not oil tolerant you have to actually
really use an oil tolerant thread Locker because how many times do you actually fix something you
put the thread Locker on there and within maybe an hour it's out the door and it's gone guess what it
doesn't cure and that's what I've seen a lot on YouTube is you know some people are just maybe
they just don't know and they're just using like any thread Locker going and really oily greasy
parts I mean you can't get ridiculous the 2:43 is not going to work if you got globs of oil and
everything all over it either but a lot of times people are putting you know what on a fastener
and then putting it inside or really you know like a contaminated fastener on the ends like a
weld not on the inside or something like that and expecting it to hold and it doesn't do anything
so it'd be good if you guys wanted to just try to fasteners yourself you know and check it out
for yourself and see but that's what I was taught over the years and yeah I like using thread Locker
as much as I can I find it's uh I would say it's actually a lot less expensive than you know buying
other hardware faster dill all of these have their uses they're still being used today and
but you won't find too many of these fasteners on automobiles you're not gonna find you're not gonna
find any of these you go around and you won't find I don't think you'll find an automobile with one
of these on it like built today so I mean they've switched over to a lot better fasteners so a lot
of the old mechanical type fasteners that were being used back then in the 70s when I first
started working in the automotive industry well they don't no longer exist anymore they have a
lot better alternatives and the liquid thread Locker is very cost competitive with any other
fastener out there and of course going down the assembly line it's already Priya Priya plied
and dried right on the fastener itself most of the time so thanks joining me here today if you
haven't seen this channel afar you're welcome to subscribe just guys take care now Cheers