Tinnerman Nut Aggravation and Relief

[Tomnistuff]

Part 1

Have any of you snapped off the « gripper » of a Tinnerman nut, resulting in the inability to attach something?  In particular, I’m talking about the three Tinnerman nuts snapped into the square holes of the windshield wiper recess that provide for installation of the Pagoda (and probably others) wiper motor.

When my car came back from body restoration, the only thing holding the Tinnerman nuts in their square holes was the new paint.  It wasn’t strong enough to overcome the force of starting screws in the paint-filled nuts.  They popped right out, leaving me extremely frustrated and facing a delay to find new ones.  The first photo shows the part of the Tinnerman nuts that were broken.
I tried two local fastener  suppliers to no avail, followed by an internet search which resulted in a price range of $ 5.00 to € 6.00 each with three or four times that much extra charges.  It’s the waiting time, provincial taxes, customs brokerage charges and shipping costs that burn my ___.

I had already wasted a couple of hours, so I decided to waste another hour or two making something simple that would do the same job.
Here are the results, in case some of you get tired of waiting for Tinnerman nuts.

The second photo is the pattern and should be correct if the photo prints correctly.  It may get modified by the Pagoda site software.  If it does not print correctly and someone wants the pattern, I can email a WORD page with the pattern on it that will print perfectly.  I printed the pattern, roughly cut it out and glued it to pieces of aluminum flashing, available in rolls at any hardware store.  My material was 0.019 inch thick aluminum, soft enough and thin enough to be cut with a pair of scissors.

I first cut out the hole in the pattern, then drilled a 7 mm hole in a piece of aluminum and glued the pattern to the aluminum, lining up the holes.

I cut out the aluminum with the pattern glued to it.  Then with a pair of vise-grip pliers, I clamped the square nut (the one I removed from the broken Tinnerman nut) to the aluminum pattern and started folding the pattern around the nut so it looked like the third and fourth photos.

[Tomnistuff]

Part 2

Once folded, I shortened the two long tabs so that they would grip the sheet metal but not create a water leak by extending beyond the rubber seal that has to sit on top of them between the sheet metal and the wiper motor flange.

Once the captured 6 mm nut is inserted in the sheet metal square hole from the inside of the car or even from under the hood by reaching through the big wiper shaft hole, the soft aluminum tabs can easily be bent open by hand (from under the hood) to grip the sheet metal as shown in the next photos.

With nothing but a little bit of scrap aluminum flashing and a couple of hours, I saved myself $ 30 - $40 and a week or two of waiting.  It feels soooooooo... good.

Tom Kizer

[Tomnistuff]

I just saved the pattern image and printed it.  It prints too big, so I guess the Pagoda site software enlargement modifies the scale.  I've tried two or three fixes but it always comes out too big.

The image should be 52 mm long, but it prints 68 mm long.  If someone wants the pattern in the correct size, send me a message and I'll email a Word page that prints to the right scale.  Or if you can print it to 76%, it should come out right.

Tom Kizer

[Tomnistuff]

OK, the pattern will print correctly if one copies the image from the Pagoda site, pastes it into a Word page, then right clicks the image and reduces the image height to 4 inches.  That page can then be printed.

Tom Kizer

[tel76]

Why not get the correct item from MB ?

[Tomnistuff]

I tried two local fastener  suppliers to no avail, followed by an internet search which resulted in a price range of $ 5.00 to € 6.00 each with three or four times that much extra charges.  It’s the waiting time, provincial taxes, customs brokerage charges and shipping costs that burn my ___.

I had already wasted a couple of hours, so I decided to waste another hour or two making something simple that would do the same job.
Here are the results, in case some of you get tired of waiting for Tinnerman nuts.

As I explained in the first post...

Tom Kizer

[hkollan]

For anyone in Scandinavia, these sets from Biltema are excellent value.
They are even better than the ones MB sells these days, where the threaded insert has slightly rounded off
edges unlike the old originals. And they are around $15 for the whole 90 pcs. Set.

Hans

http://biltema.se/sv/Bygg/Fastelement/Sortimentlada/Mutter/Korgmuttersats-90-st-191070/

[114015]

The cage nuts are available from DB if you wanted.

Further,
these are used in regular computer building, e.g. servers
for circuit board installation.

Easy to come by and cheap by the dozen or so.


Nevertheless,
excellent work done.

Best,
Achim