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loose screws


NateW

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Using TD2s and suspension kit, I find that I have to pop the top off the binding and tighten the screws that go into the board, about every 3-4 days of riding. There's usually a loose one, which means I should probably be doing this every other day.

Anyone got suggestions to keep those screws tight all season?

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Are you tightening at home or on the hill? i've noticed with the plastic burton discs you often have to re-tighten them on the hill as the plastic shrinks a bit when they get cold. maybe the suspension ring is doing the same same thang?

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Good point Galen. Plastics have an astronomical coefficient of thermal expansion.

I would be careful with the locktite. Burton used to say using it would void their warranty. Something about the solvent in it attacking the board, plus, at some point, you might want to be able to take them out!

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Using TD2s and suspension kit, I find that I have to pop the top off the binding and tighten the screws that go into the board, about every 3-4 days of riding. There's usually a loose one, which means I should probably be doing this every other day.

Anyone got suggestions to keep those screws tight all season?

I have the TD2s with suspension kit, and I was having this problem a lot in the past. For some reason sometime in the last two years they stopped working themselves loose. I'm not sure what changed, but I know it helped when I became more diligent about really tightening the screws. The suspension kit makes the screw tightening kind of "weird" - you can tighten the first screw as tight as it will go, and when you've tightened the other 3 the first one will already be loose - if I go around tightening each screw pretty tight in sequence, I usually end up touching each screw 4-5 times before they finally stop compressing the suspension pad and making the other 3 screws loose. But now they stay pretty tight (they lasted at least a week of riding in Colorado before the SES and when I finally took the bindings off to demo a board the screws were all still very tight).

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Use grease and not loctite! Grease the heads and the threads of the bolts. A little goes a long way. This will allow you to properly torque the bolts. Otherwise you are getting a false torque on the friction between the bolt and the center disk. Use a non petro grease like Bomber Butter, Pedro's SYN grease or Slick Honey.

Do not use loctite, it will destroy your board.

->Ben

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(the phenomenon, not the loose screws). Stainless to stainless causes galling (metal particles that roll up between the screws and inserts and work-harden) which tends to jamb the screws. That is why the screws stop being so mobile over time. A few firm tightenings tend to get the galling process started and then the screws run much less smoothly. Good quality stainless steel band clamps have silver-plated screws (rather than stainless) to address this problem.

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I have put clear fingernail polish (the kind with nylon in it) on screws before and have had good luck with it. Put it on the screws (multiple coats) and let it harden overnight before putting the screws in.

You can also buy a thread patching compound called "Vibra-Tite" but it can be cost prohibitive at $30 for a 1 oz bottle. Many screws come with this patching compound on them from the factory and it prevents galling as well. Same thing as the fingernail polish - put it on the screws and let it dry/harden prior to inserting them.

Your mileage may vary.

Tim

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Why not just throw the bindings, screws and plates into the freezer for a few hours?? That is what I usually do. Everything shrinks, install and go ride!!

Apply a bit of cold grease on the threads and screw caps and your done.

Don't forget to toss the boots in also, that way the plastic will contract also, once everything is nice and cold adjust the bindings to the boots

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I'd like to reiterate how great Vibra-Tite is.

It's vastly superior to Loctite, and other threadlockers, as it doesn't get crumbly and lose its effects after a short time of stress.

Never used it on a snowboard, as I haven't had the use for it, but it's fantastic stuff.

Sorry if this has already been mentioned, I just sort of glanced over this thread, but teflon tape could also be a good solution, also maintaining the advantage of Vibratite, just not being as clean, and it'll likely be harder to thread on without tearing all the tape off.

DT- Blue Loctite can still be difficult to remove, without heat or a solvent. I don't know much about the materials on a snowboard, but I don't know if you would want to apply much of either to a snowboard.

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Use grease and not loctite! Grease the heads and the threads of the bolts. A little goes a long way. This will allow you to properly torque the bolts. Otherwise you are getting a false torque on the friction between the bolt and the center disk. Use a non petro grease like Bomber Butter, Pedro's SYN grease or Slick Honey.

Do not use loctite, it will destroy your board.

->Ben

+1

I usually just grease the heads. When mounting the suspension kit, I'm also pretty careful about engaging the bolts evenly into the inserts before cranking 'em down, and simply use the cross pattern, kinda like tightening the lugs on a wheel. Just my experience w/the suspension kit. No loosening.

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Good point Galen. Plastics have an astronomical coefficient of thermal expansion.

I would be careful with the locktite. Burton used to say using it would void their warranty. Something about the solvent in it attacking the board, plus, at some point, you might want to be able to take them out!

I used locktite once on the screws of Burton bindings, and it disolved the disks. It's not a joke.

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I used locktite once on the screws of Burton bindings, and it disolved the disks. It's not a joke.

I'm not trying to discredit your statement, but I don't know if you would be able to dissolve the discs, unless there's something lost in communication here, because what I'm thinking of here is acetone or gas destroying plastic.

Loctite #262 is the stronger stuff, commonly just called Red Loctite, and I don't think there is enough of any kind of solvent in it to dissolve a plastic plate, beyond what would appear to be stripping of the threads.

Here's the list of ingredients-

Polyglycol dimethacrylate

Bisphenol A fumarate resin

CUMENE HYDROPEROXIDE*

N,N-Dialkyltoluidines

Poly(ethylene)

Saccharin

SILICA, AMORPHOUS, FUMED,

CRYSTALLINE-FREE

I mean, it's got Saccharin in it, so if anything, it will make your screws 100 times sweeter than sugar.

I'm not saying that any of you are wrong and that Loctite is just fine, but I've gotten it on many plastic pieces before, with no negative effects. If anyone can clear up what exactly causes the damage, that would be great, as I'm sure it would save my butt in some other hobby.

Thanks.

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Anyone ever try this product? They seem to be available in most of the Loctite flavours. I almost purchased one when I first saw them a few months ago at Brafasco but the price was a little silly at about $20 per Crayola size stick.

Many binding manufacturers including Burton used to provide screws pre-painted with a small amount of thread locker (colour was usually blue) which was good for one mounting and then was gone. I sometimes wondered whether there was something other than the liquid form of Loctite that they were using. Perhaps it was the crayon format.

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