Curious Question Regarding Bolts And Washers

Does it really matter whether the star nut vs the bolt head goes on the engine side vs bell housing side. I know the top 2 bolts have to go fron the bell housing to the engine since the bolts won't start from engine side due to lack of room. So I've done all the rest that way except one down by the tranny shield, it's easier to reverse it instead of fighting the shield. Which got me thinking on all the lower ones might actually be better having the bolt head coming from the front in the event you caught a rock or debris popping up and catching the nut/treads.

 

Just a curious thing.

 

As an Ironworker we were taught that the washer goes on the side you tighten from. If you have to tighten from the head side the washer goes under the head. Never impact a lock washer, they will just spin out. Some applications required that we put a washer on both sides, the head and the nut side, like Railroad bridges, with A490 high strength structural bolts. If you put a washer on both sides you have to hold the head while you tightened the nut, you can't just hit it up, it will just spin, it takes two guys to impact structural bolts with two washers. Just talking from experience, I have had, in my job. Good luck.

 

I doubt that it makes any real differnce which way the bolt goes in, unless you can't get to it otherwise. If a couple bolts only fit from one direction, I usually install the rest the same way just because it looks more uniform. Sometimes I install fastenes a certain fasteners to protect them from damage such as dragging over rocks. If the threads are more vulnerable one way, I try to install them to favor the threads.
-Donny

 

That's my normal obsessive behavior but I thought I was the only one out there. I don't really remember which way they were when I took them off, but as I began putting it all back together AGAIN, I kind of remember one being a pain to get started with the shield in the way (bottom one on far passenger side) so I was going to flip it, then started to think about rocks catching the thread on the others and it 'looked' off with one being reversed.

 

Flat washers too Glenn, the washer acts as a bearing when impacting bolts on a building. That is what they teach in apprentice school.