Another 'what is it'?

[Winger Ed.]

Years ago, a buddy found this nut in the trash and gave it to me.
Needing an ash tray for my desk at the time, I filed the notches, cut & glued a disc on the bottom.

It's only about 3/4" tall, but 4" inside (fine) thread diameter and looks like it takes a special wrench to tighten it.
Does anyone have an idea about what it would fit or go to?

[metricmonkeywrench]

Looks like an axle or shaft nut, aircraft part possibly. Do you remember whereabouts your buddy was when he found it?

[Winger Ed.]

. Do you remember whereabouts your buddy was when he found it?

Oh yeah. I kept it on my desk for years to see if anyone recognized it.
I don't have a desk anymore, but thought I'd run it past everyone here.


I kept it next to a plaque labeled 'complaint dept. please take a number'.
Attached to it was a deactivated WWII hand grenade, on the pin was a tag with a #1 on it.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

Sort of looks like an optic's lens ring.

DG

[Dusty Bannister]

When I look closely, I believe I see holes that would be used with safety wire to keep the nut from backing off. It reminded me of the lower drive pulley shaft retaining nut but is NOT from a Hughes 300 C. That is the only one I am that familiar with.

[Winger Ed.]

When I look closely, I believe I see holes that would be used with safety wire to keep the nut from backing off. It reminded me of the lower drive pulley shaft retaining nut but is NOT from a Hughes 300 C. That is the only one I am that familiar with.

You're closer than what I thought anyone would be.
We called them a 'Jesus' nut because if it failed,
that'd be about the only thing you had enough time to say as your last words.

It's a rotor head retaining nut from a CH-46D.
It ended up in the trash because anyone in the squadron that wanted one
for a souvenier when I was with HMM-164 on Okinawa already had one.

Even though they cost $250. each at the time-- which was a lot of money back then:
They only got used or torqued down with a torque multiplying Sweeny Wrench once.
That's how they'd end up in the trash.

Here's a picture of a CH-46 of HMX-1 at Quantico, VA with the fancy, high gloss 'East Coast' paint job.
And the torque multiplying Sweeney Wrench used to torque down a Jesus nut with about a 6" socket.
I don't know what the torque value is, but it takes a big husky fella pulling on a 1" drive torque wrench
about 4 feet long to set it. Then its safety wired in place.

[WILCO]

That's amazing! I was only going to hazard a guess of "Aircraft", but the truth is Indepth.

[deces]

Ash tray.

[CastingFool]

My first thought was that it looked similar to a "Jesus" nut on a Ch47 Chinook. Had to torque one down once. Had to hoist the Sweeney wrench with a crane, clamp it down on the rotor head, put the torque wrench on it, and start cranking on it. The Sweeney wrench was basically a torque multiplier.

[Winger Ed.]

My first thought was that it looked similar to a "Jesus" nut on a Ch47 Chinook. Had to torque one down once. .

That sounds right. I never got up close to one, but the H-46 is a somewhat smaller version of the H-47 the Army bought,
and the blades can fold so they can fit more of them on a ship.

[CastingFool]

I enjoyed working on Chinooks, although I didn't work on them all that long. I got transitioned to working on Hueys, after my unit went to Korea and I got reassigned to a different company, awaiting personnel action.

[HardColt]

Looks like an old axle nut of the older F-15A&B's or another fighter aircraft.

[Three44s]

If the threads were on the outside circumference, I would toss in a spanner nut for a hydraulic cylinder.

Speaking of Chinook, we had one drop in for a visit one day at some land our family owns in the mountains!

It was an Army chopper and it was just clearing a 7,200' peak just north of "our" Valley when they lost power on one of their engines. They declared an emergency and began a controlled decent into an unknown future.

Just as things were looking pretty grim because they were settling into an expanse of heavy timber to have to be forced to land in, our large meadow opened up before their eyes!

A nice uneventful landing at 4,100 ' followed!

Then an Army veteran from WWII (Tenth Mountain division) who was a great friend of ours and camped (summers) near by there happened along. They were thirsty. Our friend Max brought ALL his beer down to save them from dehydration.

When the Dueces showed up, Max was well replenished!

All went well for the entire crew except for one passenger though. You see Max spotted one city raised fellow. He began telling COUGAR stories. That lad slept on top of the fuselage of the Chinook. Everything got fixed up and Max and the Army had another story to tell!

Three44s

[CastingFool]

I'm surprised they had engine trouble. Chinooks have two 2850 shaft hp engines, and they can fly on just one engine.

[Winger Ed.]

I'm surprised they had engine trouble. Chinooks have two 2850 shaft hp engines, and they can fly on just one engine.

If it had much of a load inside and lost a engine, that'd sure prompt me into setting it down pretty quick.
Multi engine aircraft can usually fly on one engine but not very gracefully,
and it isn't like they have spares and don't really need all of them.

I've been in helicopters when things started going wrong.
Looking for a place to set it down is real high on the priority list.
You can't really tell by looking at the pilots, they look and sound like it's just another day at the office,
but I suspect there is actually some rather serious 'puckering' going on.

[missionary5155]

Knew numerous Nam crewmen who would always watch helo's carefully if they were flying overhead. Slings, hooks and nets break. Cargo falls and other items also.
But we appreciated all of them and every box or bag or part they kicked out the door for us.
Armor 71-74

[StrawHat]

I have heard it is the noise of the rotors that keeps helicopters in the air. Once they stop making noise, the pilots start to sweat.

Kevin

[bedbugbilly]

Geeze . . . and here I was thinking it was the nut that secured the smallest gear in place on a small antique woman's pocket watch!

This was an interesting "what is it" and enjoyed the posts! I had heard about the "Jesus Nut" on a chopper but had never seen one. Thanks for sharing!

[varmintpopper]

The Jesus Christ nut on a CH-47D requires "5500 foot pounds" of torque.
Torque equals force times length. (TFL) A foot long horizontal bar with one pound hanging from one end would create one pound of torque at the other end.
Just My 2

Good Shooting

Lindy