Green loctite on wheel bolts/nuts?

[cleantune]

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Hi everyone. I am in the process of rebuilding a set of wheels and I had noticed a green threadlocker on the bolts and nuts before I disassembled them, so I thought I would do the same (I'm almost positive this is how they came from the factory).

I used green 290 Loctite. It seeped in between the torqued bolt/nut assemblies just fine, leaving a small amount of excess on the top of the nut. The problem is the ring of excess resting on the top of the nut is still wet and has been wet for 4-5 days now.

I cleaned the bolts and nuts with isopropyl alcohol before assembly and I shook the bottle of loctite before application. What am I doing wrong? What would you do?

Pic of product:


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[Zic]

http://www.loctite.sg/sea/content_data/93808_290EN.pdf

A quick google and the datasheet is up, should be fully cured in 24 to 72 hours depending on temperature,

[Ditchdigger]

Loctite is an Anerobic product. It cures in the absence of air.

Anaerobics, that include many of our threadlockers, pipe sealants, retaining compounds and flange sealants, are products that cure in the absence of air. These are products that are designed for metal-to-metal assemblies although they are sometimes used for other materials as well. The presence of metal (ions) accelerates the cure of these products. When you assemble parts with an anaerobic and you have excess squeeze out, outside the joint, this will not harden due to the anaerobic nature of the product. Simply wipe the excess away with a common solvent like acetone or isopropyl alcohol. Typically anaerobics fully cure in 24 hours at room temperature under normal ambient conditions when properly used.

[cleantune]

Thanks guys, yeah, I read the same things. This is just really weird. I thought the loctite would just dry up. I'm hoping since it is anaerobic, maybe all the excess on the top of the nut blocked out any oxygen, allowing the loctite below the surface to cure.

The pdf on the product also says to heat the metal hardware to open up pores (expansion) to facilitate a better surface for the loctite to bond to, but this is optional, right?. I was also reading that it reacts with metal, so maybe more pores, more surface area, more metal for the loctite to react with? I dunno.

Tonight I tried putting some heat on the nut/bolt assemblies in an attempt to dry out the excess loctite resting on top of the nuts and or open some pores on the hardware; no luck though. So I dabbed off the excess loctite with a papertowel and noticed that some remained in the seam between the nuts and bolts. I made another pass with the heat gun (just a few times around with the heatgun about 4-5 inches away from the hardware). The plan is to leave it for 24 hours and then use a toothpick to check the remaining loctite in the "seam" for wetness. I know its probably not the best method to check, but at least it will give us an idea of whether or not there is even the possibility of it being dry between the threads. I'll post the results in a day or so.

In the meantime please keep the ideas coming, every little bit of info helps
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[cleantune]

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Checked the bolts/nuts the other day with a piece of paper and the green loctite is STILL WET between the threads. The bottle and package the loctite came in was really warm when I recieved it, so maybe the temperature from sitting in the sun in the mail truck did something to the loctite? I dunno.

Everything is torqued already and the nuts are the locking flange type of nuts:


Maybe I could just soak up as much green threadlocker as possible and then dab some blue or red loctite around the top of the nut and let it seep into the threads? What do you guys and girls think? What would you do?

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[cleantune]

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Just wanted to add some CLOSURE to this thread.

I told a local hardware store about this "problem" so they tested it with some of their own new green 290 loctite and a stainless steel nut and bolt. The loctite was applied to the threads of the bolt and the nut was put on finger tight, so that it could easily spin off.

***After about 5 hours the green loctite on the exposed threads and around the top of the nut was still wet, BUT due to the the anaerobic (absence of oxygen) nature of this loctite (and most other loctite thread lockers), the once loose nut was now tight on the bolt to a point that neither of us could twist it off. Only the loctite between the threads had cured.****

Later, I tried this same "loose nut on bolt" experiment with a dirty nut and bolt as well as a clean nut and bolt using the excess green loctite that was left on top of the wheel nut and bolt assemblies. About 15 hours later the dirty nut remained on the bolt with light pressure, but eventually broke free; however the clean nut remained tight on the bolt with more pressure than was used for the dirty nut and bolt.

The cool thing too is that the clean nut and bolt used in this experiment were previously used as thread cleaners (bult had a groove cut down the length of its threads and the nut was missing a piece of one of its sides. These missing sections were set opposite to each other during the experiment. This experiment supports that the green loctite 290 doesn't have to be around a "continuous thread", it just needs to be between a tight thread junction, so that it can push out any air, allowing an oxygen-free environment for it to cure.

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