By the posts, It seems that the little bell/dust cap was probably on the
short dip sticks and wore out the slot enough to slip by the two
retaining "wings" above the bell/cap. It would take an awful lot of wear
to make the slot in the cap big enough to slip over retaining wings.
Even if the cap slipped over the retaining wings it shouldn't be able to
work its way up the finger pull and off the end (especially on the long
finger pull stick). There is no way it can come off the lower end
because the flare on the lower side of the dip stick is too big.
.
I checked all the dip sticks I have (new & used - 10 sticks) and the
bell/dust caps are loose fitting, but the slot would have to be worn
quite a bit for the bell/dust cap to slip by. It's odd that most of the
missing bell/dust caps are on the short finger pull dip sticks.
.
It also appears the LAT chrome dress-up kit used the short dip sticks,
when available.
.
One more thing, the bell/dust caps also have a fiber or rubber seal
(depending on the dip stick model/style) on the under side of the cap,
which is missing on a couple of my used dip sticks.
David Franchi
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