At 09:45 PM 11/17/2010  +0000, Dylan Friedman wrote:
>Agreed.
>Think about it and simplify.
>Use quality components and modern chemicals to preserve the parts.

> From Wikipedia: Another example where they aid locking is a joint
> that experiences a large amount of thermal expansion and
> contraction. They will supply the required pre-load, but the bolt
> may have an additional locking mechanism (like Loctite) that would
> fail without the Belleville.

 From the company formed by the guy who invented them:

Heavy Duty Bolting Washers: Gasket set or a quantity of expansion or
contraction cycles can cause loosening of the bolt and these heavy
duty washers are designed to prevent such an occurrence.
http://www.bellevillesprings.com/heavy-duty-bolting-washers.html

Personally here in the salty Northeast I've seen a lot more gaskets
blow out sideways (quite a few) than nuts loosen and fall off
(none).  But then my experience has been with the 1.9l, which didn't
use the Belleville washers.  Since VW added them in 1988 after two
years experience with the 2.1l I suspect there was a reason...

Yours,
David