[DeTomaso] Engine cover

[Mike Drew]

All,

More on this arcane subject. 

Remember when I said I believed that the Pantera engine cover was secured by a series of simple square metric nuts?  You guys said I was nuts. Well, I finally took a pic of the setup in Lori’s #1765:

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Yes. A simple metric square nut welded to the inside of the firewall, one of the several used to secure the ‘71 cover.

One of the zillions of undocumented changes made to the 1972 and later cars was a switch to floating captive nuts. I believed I had found one and pictured it here originally and posted its external measurements as 16x19mm. I finally tested it today and determined it uses a 5/16 bolt.  It’s not metric and the fastener it uses is much larger than the Pantera bolts. Ergo, it’s not a Pantera part but instead just some random SAE non-square non-metric non-Pantera part that was lurking on my garage floor. 

Which leads us back to the original question:  exactly what kind of nuts are used in the captive arena on the 72 and later cars?  I believe they are M5, and I thought they were simple square nuts, but others here have disputed it. What are the exact dimensions (to include thickness please?). I committed to helping a fellow forum dude who lacks the ability to create his own, presuming I would copy the one I have. But now I have learned I don’t have one to copy. If somebody who actually knows the answer can post the LxWxH measurements, and confirm it’s M-5, I can hopefully find a suitable piece of scrap steel and make a few of these for the fellows who needs them. 

I would rather not have to pry one out of my own car if I can help it!

Thanks!

Mike


Sent from my iPad

> On Apr 26, 2020, at 15:58, Mike Drew <MikeLDrew at aol.com> wrote:
> 
> Larry,
> 
> I found one in my parts stash:
> 
> <image2.jpeg>
> 
> 
> It measures 16x19mm. So definitely not a regular square nut!
> 
> Mike
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
>> On Apr 26, 2020, at 14:02, Larry Finch via DeTomaso <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Mike,
>> 
>> Is your statement, that they seem to be “typical metric square nuts”, based on just your powers of observation, or have you previously found, purchased and successfully installed these “ typical metric square nuts”?
>> 
>> As I previously wrote, I too recently sought these same replacement nuts and found the readily available offerings to be smaller than the ones needed, the same discovery that Dennis made.
>> 
>> Larry 
>> 
>> Sent from me using a magic, handheld electronic gizmo. 
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