<VV> The Clutch head saga is getting old

[Jerry McKenzie]

Every once in awhile, something catches the curiousity of the VV crowd, and this one is just of the those.   As another explanation, the reason that GM/Delco Remy did not use "Phillips" screws per se, was that the patent demands of those holding the patents caused GM to find a way to get around the approach by designing their own "cross-slotted" screws as we used in holding the pole shoes in cranking motors, etc....Cross slotted screws avoided the patent particulars and required no special royalties for the "Phillips" design.  Perhaps the use of GM's version of the Clutch head screw was for a similar reason to avoid high volume costs for a fastener that needed to be quickly driven. Keeping in mind that Delco Remy shipped over 30,000 sets of electrical equipment every day in the 60s and 70s, with many screws, such as the ones to hold the motor pole shoes in place, and with all of the bean counters looking for ways to reduce cost, a few cents for less cost of any assembly was of  high 
 interest.

I do know that some of the 61 Lakewood wagons had the foot dimmer switch held in place by the "clutch head" screws, as I ended up having to replace the original switch on one such vehicle.  I had to find a tool to remove the switch (Fall of 2000).

In any case, the topic did break the monotony and provided a lot of speculation on why, how, and ??


Jerry McKenzie

former Delco Remy Quality/Reliability engineer/Automated Test Projects,  and escapee in 1981.