Necessity is the mother of invention, and Stage 8 Fasteners is proof. Bruce Bennett was working on his Harley Davidson motorcycle one day, and when several of the bolts he had previously installed worked loose, he knew something had to be done. To that end, he designed a bolt that wouldn’t work its way loose even under extreme temperature and vibration. That was more than 30 years ago, and today, Stage 8 Fasteners is a leader in keeping things tight.

Many new exhaust systems manufactured today use a ball-and-socket style connection with flanges that are bolted together with long bolts. Often, an over-enthusiastic enthusiast will overtighten these bolts and as a result, bend the flanges, which ruins the seal. To solve that problem Stage 8 partnered with Kooks Headers to develop hardware to connect the ball socket joint used on their header and exhaust systems. With the bolt-locking system, you don’t have to over tighten the fastener to keep it from coming loose. You could – in theory – simply snug the bolt, install the lock and retaining ring, and it will stay there. You will not have to worry about it damaging the flange.

For you guys with 9-inch rearends, the bridge retainer is a great safety upgrade. You torque the fastener during differential assembly, place the bridging plate over the top of any two bolts, insert the snap rings and viola, the bolts cannot back out until you remove the bridge.

So, the next time you have a bolt that refuses to keep a grip on anything, try a Stage 8 bolt. It’s guaranteed to stay put.