Piston Slap: (Internal) Teeth Gnashing About Lock Washers
Carrol writes:
I replaced a bad driver’s side telescoping sun visor on a 1982 Corvette. The problem I had was that the little retainer clip that fits over the spring keeps breaking (I’ve gone thru 2-3 clips) as I tried to install it. It appears that the replacement clips are thin aluminum and break easily while the old one, which I was able to resurrect, is steel. I need to replace the sunvisor again, but I need good retainer clips. Any suggestions?
Sajeev answers:
I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest a workable replacement could be available at a hardware store, an industrial supply company (like Grainger), or one of thousands of online retailers on eBay or Amazon. All you need are some measurements from the old washer and a handy chart like this one from McMaster-Carr.
What you are looking for is called an “internal toothed lock washer” made of stainless steel, not aluminum. Stainless steel is significantly stronger, so it should hold that little spring nicely, and make your sun visor stay in its happy place against the windscreen.
So choose your hardware vendor, measure your current lock washer carefully, but feel free to buy a few different sizes if you have concerns about the accuracy of your measurements. The big concern is getting the correct outer diameter to fit into the C3’s windshield frame. The inner diameter likely won’t matter as much, because it gets crushed around the rod that holds the sun visor. Just get as close to the factory part and you should be good to go.
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Sajeev, I thought you were talking about the white plastic tension ring that the sunvisor holding rod slides into. When these crack, and the do on a regular basis, the sun visor will not stay in the up position. In all my my early 1980’s C3s this was the biggest aggregation I had with the cars. There was no spring in the mechanism.
I would say visit a Corvette forum for advice or e mail Lyle at C&S Corvette in Sarasota Fl. He is a wealth of knowledge and offers great advice.
Thanks, I was just asking if that was the problem he was addressing. I had never seen that small spring on any of sunvisors on my prior Corvettes.
I am good at C5-7 visors. But they are much different. My C3 experience was 30 years ago.
Also Lyle is the one who has solved a number of things for me. He is a big help in the Corvette community
Also the Corvett Forum is often filled with a lot of help like this.
Some other places to look would be at your local Tractor Supply (they have a nice assortment of odd hardware) or the ‘help’ section (I think it’s a brand name) at the local auto parts store if you don’t want to go the online route. Sometimes I want to actually see the thing before I buy it. Of course the local swap meet is another good choice
I’ve found that sometimes, a metric washer is a better fit – ID and OD for an SAE sized fastener – than the “matching” SAE size offered at the hardware store. Also, often McMaster-Carr is a much less spendy alternative to the fasteners/hardware sold by restoration supply outfits, which is likely their source as well.
I think I’ve seen those washers at Lowe’s. I can’t verify all of the sizes, but it could be a faster and cheaper alternative, especially if shipping is involved.
Those aren’t really washers they are push on external retaining rings. The best selection on the web is found a McMaster Carr who have them in a host of materials in SAE and Metric sizes. No question on what you are getting as every page has a engineering style drawing with all relevant measurements. The only problem is that you’ll have to buy more than you need. Depending on the relative cost that could be anywhere from 5 to 200.
The other place to look is to see if you have a locally owned independent hardware store that carries Midwest Fastener products. They have a ton of different assortment boxes with an incredible range of items. Of course it depends on what your local store decides to stock just how deep in the catalog they go. My local go to is a Do-It affiliate and they seem to have everything, including automotive specialty pieces. Mine also stocks a bunch of Avueco assortments for the automotive stuff Midwest doesn’t offer.
The proper name for the part is a “Push-On Shaft Retainer” as seen on this McMaster page:
https://www.mcmaster.com/products/shaft-retainers/retaining-ring-style~push-on/