Hi Ian,
I've never heard of instructions to fit a Nyloc nut 'the wrong way around'....
I've been wondering why this instruction?
Maybe there wouldn't be enough thread protruding through the nut to allow the nylon ring to grip. In which case get a longer shaft
or a shorter nut.
Maybe the seating for the nut in the CV body is not flat?
If it isn't, I'd suggest looking in the possibility of having it spot-faced flat and fit the nyloc nut the correct way around. (I accept you might not have the facilities to do so and might be loathe to pay to have this done, given how much this conversion has already cost you
)
Re: finding the starting position for the nut if fitting it 'the wrong way around'?
You could measure the thread pitch and compare this with the thickness of the nylon ring in the nut to determine the starting position of the nut on the threaded shaft. e.g. if the pitch was 1.25mm and the nylon ring was 2.5mm thick then that equals exactly 2 turns on the nut , so aligning the start point on the nut with the start point of the shaft thread would work fine. However it's unlikely the calculations will work out so conveniently.
If you just happened to have a taper tap of the requisite size 16mm?, 18mm? laying around, you could run this through the nyloc nut to lightly mark the starting position. Don't have such a tap lying around? Nor do I!
You could use a thread gauge to 'follow' the thread around from the end of nut to locate the starting point on the nylon ring.
Re: running the nut on in the correct way to locate the starting point on the nylon ring? I agree this is not 'technically' correct but we've all probably done it at some time or other ( on cars but afaik never on aircraft etc). I seem to remember a sort of 'rule-of thumb' in deciding if a nyloc type nut could be re-used. Basically if you could turn the previously used nut with your fingers, then it was useless as a self-locking nut. At a pinch, I've 'adjusted' the top of the nut downwards a little to compress the nylon ring to regain some grip on the thread allowing re-use.
I've got to ask! Are these tripod joint kits available in any other colour....
AL.