Andy,
AN stands for Army/Navy. Additionally you may find references to MS
(Military Standard) and NAS (Navy Aeronautical Standard). These are
standards for design of fasteners and other hardware that were adopted
during WW2 when everybody and their third cousin in the US was turning
out guns, tanks and planes. Since the Brits were are allies and used
alot of our hardware they also adopted some of these standards.
AN fittings can be found at a good auto parts store (the kind where
the people behind the counter actually know how to work on cars) or
a really good source for these and other quality fasteners would be at
your local municipal airport. There is usually a store on or near the
airport that caters to the private owner/pilots who do some of their
own work. My favorite one (now gone in the name of improvement) was at
Torrance, Ca. airport in a WW2 era wood and tin hangar. This guy had
bins full of nice aircraft quality cad plated hardware at the price of
the junk hardware at your local home center. I used to just go and buy
stuff by the pound. He would also make braided steel oil and brake
lines to order.
Later Triumphs (I have an '80 TR7) really started to resemble Japanese
cars in the respect that things were designed to be assembled easily
and efficiently on the line but not to be disassembled/reassembled. I
have a personal policy of always trying to replace/upgrade fasteners
whenever possible.
A word to the wise, nylon insert lock nuts are terrific but really
should not be reused! If they are even a few years old the nylon
becomes hard and conforms to the bolt threads. When removed, it won't
"spring back" and provide any degree of interference for the necessary
resistance when reassembled.
This is probably more than you really wanted to know but I'm running
out of friends and neighbors to bore to death so I figure I'll start
on you guys.
Cheers
Kurt Oblinger
TR2
TR3
TR7
Vitesse
Doretti
Mini
Norton
...and lots of nuts and bolts to put them back together with!
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: compression nuts
Author: "Lindberg, Andrew (MN12)" <alindber@P16.MN12.Honeywell.COM> at smtpgate
Date: 11/7/95 4:04 PM
On Sunday, November 05, 1995, Berry Kercheval wrote: "THat's why every time
I touch a brake line I change it to racing AN-style fittings."
Excuse my ignorance, but what's an AN fitting? And where do you get them
and how are they installed? I'm probably a little paranoid about my
hydraulic lines (and terrified about my fuel lines), but I'd appreciate any
advice on how to insure their integrity.
Andy Lindberg
(TR3 in Minnesota)
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