This is the most common of the fasteners on our truck. Generally its a threaded bolt with 6 sides on the cap, and a corrosponding nut on the other end. Sometimes it is backed up with washers to broaden the holding torque over a wider area. For some inexplicable reason, Land Rover has seen fit to use somewhat substandard hardware in non-load bearing applications. Land Rover also seems to not recognize the need to use any anti-sieze paste to facilitate removal of fasteners at a later time. The combination of these two factors can be the source of unending frustration. You got severe rust and corrosion on the threads of fasteners, and the fasteners themselves are not hardened so they deform easily when you apply enough torque to loosen them.
I would strongly encourage owners to replace all fasteners taken off the truck with a minumum of Grade 5 or Metric 8.8 fasteners. If loctite or other chemical anti-loosening agent is not called for, then use anti-seize should be used when putting the fasteners back together. If loctite is called for, use the appropriate agent for the application. We have provided the official loctite guide to their agent use for your convenience.
In some cases Land Rover use a special nut called a castellated nut. These are prevalent on ball joints and are easily recognized because they use a split pin to prevent them from backing off. Recently, LR has gone to Nyloc nut as a replacement for these. While this may prove useful in theory, in application is a great source of frustration, particularly on ball joints. It is far preferable to use a flat washer and loctite or two adjacent nuts to prevent loosening.
Fastener Strengths/Grade Markings
Fastener markings are designed to provide the user with two important pieces of information:
1. The specification to which the fastener was manufactured
2. The manufacturer's identification mark.
Camcar's Identification marks for Camcar fasteners may appear on inch-sized fasteners as"...." (4 dots); "Camcar"; or as three radial lines under the head. On metric-sized fasteners, Camcar's Identification marks may appear as "....12.9"; "Camcar 12.9"; or as three radial lines under the head.
WARNING: Inch standard and metric property class 12.9 socket head cap screws are considered comparable. However, in countries that use the metric system, the manufacture of socket head cap screws to property classes other than 12.9 are permitted. If your application requires socket head cap screws to property class 12.9, it is very important you verify with your supplier that those socket head cap screws you are buying meet those requirements.