if you must have nuts the same size to suit your wrench, you could always pick up a stainless steel nut in the size you need, take it to machine shop and have them tap it out to the size you need. might be smart to get couple extra.

Hi all!

Wasn't able to respond back yesterday, as I decided to spend the day at Disneyland! Even saw/heard an excellent Beatles tribute band performing at Downtown Disney. Don't get me started on "Ringo's" drum kit, which will be on a separate thread!

Anyway, about the Maxwell parts, I neglected to mention about the nuts and bolts on my rail. Those chromed parts you see did NOT come with the rail, but purchased separately for cosmetic reasons. While I give kudos to Steve M for coming out with his rail, he does tend to scrimp on the nuts and bolts provided. The 7/16" chromed nuts on my rail were purchased on eBay, while the other chromed bolts were purchased locally at a supplier called King Bolt. For myself, it's all in the details and I just wasn't happy with the hardware supplied by SM.

And, K.O. is correct that the original 7/16" Ludwig nuts were custom ordered and tapped for either 1/4-20 or 5/16-18 threading, depending on the year they were used.

-Mark

Okay, so I have the bottom bolt and nut figured out, but the upper one is still causing trouble. I can't get a nut that takes a 7/16 wrench to fit on a bolt that will fit through the hole. The previous nut took an 11 wrench size. Any ideas?

sounds like you're dealing with a metric bolt/nut. I think the standard 7/16th nut is threaded to go on a 1/4-20 threaded bolt.

That's what I thought, but my socket wrench just keeps spinning around the smaller nut. A local hardware supply expert said that its probable between the partial unthreaded lower carriagge bolt and the larger diameter upper nut that the parts were custom ordered.

I outfitted the lower, large carriage bolt with a coupling nut to take the 7/16 wrench. Then, I found another 1/4-20 bolt that takes a 7/16. The 7/16 nut on the upper 1/4-20 bolt doesn't take to my socket wrench, but I snagged a 4" adjustable wrench for $5 and called it a day. I still need to find a larger carriage bolt that is partially unthreaded at the top, but that seems to be a custom job according to everyone I met. When. You all replace the lower bolt, did you just get one that is completely threaded?

What still alludes me is why an 11 socket wrench fits better than the 7/16 to which the bolt corresponds.