Wing nut

[Morris R.]

Does anyone know the difference between an original wing nut and a repro for a 66 corvette air cleaner? Thank you

[Kenneth F.]

Re: Wing nut

DSCN3446.jpg
Morris, This was on my 1966, 350 H.P. when I got it in 1967. I assume it is the original.

Ken

[Morris R.]

Re: Wing nut

Thank you ken

[Matt L.]

Re: Wing nut

hi Morris,

here are a couple pics for comparison. in the 1st pic the top wingnut is original and the bottom is repro. in the 2nd pic the left is original and the repro has the mickey mouse effect. i hope this helps. take care, matt 66 vette exhaust clamps 1150.jpg66 vette exhaust clamps 1151.jpg

[Kenneth F.]

Re: Wing nut

Morris, The inward edges of the wings of the wing nut I have lean slightly outward of vertical. The dimension of the top of the wing, at right angle to the center is .262. The width of the top of the wing from the center to outward is .325-.335, depending how the micrometer is positioned.
Ken

[Morris R.]

Re: Wing nut

Thanks ken

[Page C.]

Re: Wing nut

The wingnut issue comes up from time to time. If you count the midyear Corvettes, there were about 118,000 minus the about 3000 FI cars. Thats roughly 115,000 wingnuts for midyear cars. I have a hard time believing that GM single sourced the wingnut to one supplier that made them on one machine and would in effect not let them ship a single car because of not being able to install the air cleaner. If you look at all GM lines, they had to be using wingnuts in the millions.

[Morris R.]

Re: Wing nut

Good point page, have a merry cristmas

[David L.]

Re: Wing nut

I firmly believe that there was more then one supplier of the 219281 chrome plated wing nut. The wing nuts used on low horse power Chevrolets were the same except for the chrome plating. The part number of the non-chrome plated wing nut is 9418699.

Enclosed is a photo of a NOS 219281 wing nut and a repro 219281 wing nut (thicker metal).
Also enclosed is a photo of various 9418699 non-chrome plated wing nut from various Chevrolet models that came from salvage yards back in the 1980's. I was the original owner of the 77 El Camino. The wing nuts with the "Mickey Mouse" ears were also used on the production line.

Dave

[Ronald L.]

Re: Wing nut

It was very typical and still is today to single source components. If a screw machine can make "one" screw every five seconds, a stamping machine a metal form every 10 seconds, how many can that machine make an hour? In a 24 hour period? And how many go to the Corvette plant? Corvette would only need 250 wing nuts a day? That would be less than an hour's production, blank, form, pierce & thread the hole. Then, the supplier would black oxide or phos some - in batch, others chrome plate, again in batch.

The differences you see are a 50 year history of parts, some with the correct configuration, and others superceded part numbers, and others, attempts to reproduce what "someone thinks" is real. The print always helps when it comes to deciphering what is real and what is not. In this case the print specifies the metal thickness, base, hole size, thread, and some other critical characteristics like tip to tip, width of the wings, base contact dimensions to name enough to throw out all the reproduction parts.