Acorn nuts have those round caps and are (or should I say "were") commonly used as fasteners on twin shock motorcyles. These day there aren't a lot of twin shock motorcycles!
In the photo above you can see one of the old acorn nuts on the left. It was time to replace them. I figured no problem, head to the cycle shop and pick up a pair. I started at South Seas Honda on Nimitz Highway. They checked their parts fiche and came up with nothing. I mentioned to the parts guy, they used these nuts on nearly all Japanese bikes in the 70's and into the 80's. I found it hard to believe they didn't have any acorn nuts in stock. He went and looked in the parts room and came back with an acorn nut for a Yamaha. Cost: $4.99. Okay, that will work. Please make it a set. Oh, he only had one! The Yamaha nut was a different style with a flange. Forget it.
Next I headed toward Waipahu (I was working) and decided to check the Kawasaki shop. Same situation. They only have acorn nuts for Harleys, which are not metric.
I couldn't believe it. No acorn nuts. City Mill carries acorn nuts, however the thread for Hondas is 1.25 pitch, which is not common. Home Depot doesn't carry metric acorn nuts.
Next stop - Ebay. It still took some searching, eventually I found Johnny's Vintage Motorcycle - an Ebay Store. He carried the correct size, 10mm x 1.25 pitch. I ordered three nuts - two replacements and a spare. The cost, with shipping was $7 bucks.
The acorn nuts came in today. As you can see in the photo, the new nuts are a great improvement over the old rusted ones.
Continuing with the rebuild....
