Engine Packing Nut Modification

After steaming the car several times, invariably one of the piston stem rods packing nut will vibrate loose and eventually unscrew to where the piston stem rod guide (slider) bangs against the packing nut. This is not good, and makes a rather load knock too. I have tried various things, like aviation sealant that stays semi-fluid to make the threads "sticky" thereby eliminating the unscrewing of the nut, but because this area becomes rather hot, the sealant liquefies and the nut still rotates loose. So inspired by an old Mason Steam Engine that Locomobile use to use, I am adopting their solution to this problem. First the next image shows the packing nut that I'm referencing.

The next image shows how the Mason Steam Engine stopped their packing nuts from loosening from the vibrations of the engine. The image shows the packing nuts for the valve stems, but they also used the same idea on the piston rods too.

So I decided to create a sheet-metal bracket that would provide tension against the packing nut, but first I needed to file away a radius so that the bracket would sit and align better with the packing nut.

I then unscrewed the M6 hex head cap screw above the filed away radius. This will be where I will attach the sheet-metal bracket. I made a cardboard pattern to prototype my bracket and then transferred this to my sheet-metal to make.

I bent the sheet-metal and brazed some welding rod to the bracket that will interface with the packing nut.

(as a note, the 12 3/4 is the number of full turns on the connecting rod slider block that took to unscrew the slider from the piston stem rod- I wanted to make sure that when I reinstalled the slider it was in the same relative position on the piston stem rod) 

Next I used a hack saw, small flat file and small round file to make grooves between each hole on the packing nut. To get to this packing nut I had to first remove the steam engine from the body to allow better access to all of the parts. I disconnected the connecting rod from the slider, then unscrewed the slider to allow the packing nut to be unscrewed from the piston rod. (I'm getting good at removing the engine - this being about the forth time I have done this).

The next few images shows the bracket and packing nut assembled on the engine. I am hopeful that this will eliminate this issue. My only concern is the gauge of sheet-metal I used. I may have to re-make the bracket out of a heavier gauge - I used 22ga.

This modification really should be done for all future Lykamobile Engines. Steam Traction World should design something to prevent this packing nut from unscrewing. My solution may not be the best, but I think something should be designed to stop the packing nut from loosening. Just my 2-cents.