Its an opener for a Dzus type (I"ve never heard of it either) fastener. Apparently, the slot is for easier removal of fuel caps. Very interesting find!
[Edited 2009-06-20 20:55:23]
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Lowrider From United States of America, joined Jun 2004, 3220 posts, RR: 11 Reply 2, posted (3 years 11 months 1 week 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 5478 times:
2H4 From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 8950 posts, RR: 62 Reply 3, posted (3 years 11 months 1 week 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 5475 times:
TF39 From United States of America, joined Jul 2006, 110 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (3 years 11 months 1 week 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 5474 times:
Quoting Phoenix9 (Reply 1): Its an opener for a Dzus type (I"ve never heard of it either) fastener
old type of fastener - pronounced like Zeus or Zoos. It is a quick-opening, quick-action type of fastener. We had them on inspection panels, APU cowelings, etc. Google "Zeus fastner" to see the images.
Phoenix9 From Canada, joined Aug 2007, 2546 posts, RR: 8 Reply 5, posted (3 years 11 months 1 week 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 5468 times:
Quoting TF39 (Reply 4): old type of fastener - pronounced like Zeus or Zoos. It is a quick-opening, quick-action type of fastener. We had them on inspection panels, APU cowelings, etc. Google "Zeus fastner" to see the images.
Thanks! Seems like it is a easy-to-use with fairly strong hold...I wonder why it lost its popularity.
Life only makes sense when you look at it backwards.
ThirtyEcho From United States of America, joined Dec 2001, 1634 posts, RR: 1 Reply 6, posted (3 years 11 months 1 week 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 5449 times:
You will find Dzus fasteners on the front cowling inspection panel of almost any older light piston aircraft. If you ever dipsticked it, you Dzused it.
XT6Wagon From United States of America, joined Feb 2007, 3133 posts, RR: 4 Reply 8, posted (3 years 11 months 1 week 8 hours ago) and read 5305 times:
Dzus fasteners are still used in a variety of applications outside aviation...
and a proper fastener wrench does less damage to the fastener than a screwdirver. Which gets important if say its a racecar and 4 of them are holding your hood on. going to be using those fasteners alot in the life of the car, and if they fail... might be some very bad moments.
Lowrider From United States of America, joined Jun 2004, 3220 posts, RR: 11 Reply 9, posted (3 years 11 months 1 week 4 hours ago) and read 5257 times:
Quoting XT6Wagon (Reply 8): Dzus fasteners are still used in a variety of applications outside aviation...
They also work well on motorcycle fairings that have to be removed on a routine basis, such as for oil changes.
Jetstar From United States of America, joined May 2003, 1524 posts, RR: 10 Reply 10, posted (3 years 11 months 1 week 3 hours ago) and read 5247 times:
Quoting TF39 (Reply 4): old type of fastener - pronounced like Zeus or Zoos. It is a quick-opening, quick-action type of fastener. We had them on inspection panels, APU cowelings, etc. Google "Zeus fastner" to see the images.
Dzus fasteners, I hated them because they didn’t last.
Quite often the “S” spring the fastener latched on to would rust out or just break from use, the open jaws that grabbed the “S” spring would break off or open wide enough that it would not grab the spring, the slot in the head of the Dzus fastener would wear out and last but not least, they would rust.
The cowling on my 1964 C-150 was held on with PK sheetmetal screws, which were time consuming to remove every time I worked on the engine, so I converted the cowling over to Dzus fasteners, which reduced the time to remove the cowling, but were nothing but problems with all the above mentioned.
In my restoration of my airplane, I probable will change over to cam locks if the holes in the cowling are not to big to take the locks, I had to enlarge the holes to take the Dzus fasteners
In the early C-150’s the cowling was mounted directly to the fuselage, so the cowling was exposed to engine vibrations, which caused cracking in parts of the cowling like the upper and lower nose caps. These vibrations also resulted in some of the cowling screws working loose, especially if the tinnerman clips that the screws attached too were worn out.
Cessna in later models shock mounted the cowling to eliminate these problems.
Jetlagged From United Kingdom, joined Jan 2005, 2452 posts, RR: 17 Reply 12, posted (3 years 11 months 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 5190 times:
Dzus fasteners are still used to hold instrument panels in place on the flightdeck or to hold tuning heads, avionics controllers, etc in place in the aisle stand and on the overhead. Still a quarter turn to operate.
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