An intelligent fastener unit for fastening together structural members. The fastener unit includes a fastener with an externally threaded shank, an internally threaded mating member for threaded engagement with the fastener, and an intelligent washer having an RFID tag and an antenna mounted on one surface of a centrally aperture body member, and a pressure sensor mounted on the opposite surface for generating electrical signals representative of the compressive force applied to structural members captured by the fastener, the mating member and the washer. An air gap is formed in the washer body member between the outer periphery and the central aperture to reduce eddy current formation when the RFID tag is interrogated by an RFID tag reader using r.f. signaling. The RFID tag has a memory containing information specific to the fastener unitsuch as fastener unit identification, specified torque value and other information Once installed, the existing torque on a collection of fastener units is measured by using the RFID tag reader to scan the information stored in the memory of each fastener unit washer.

A locking system including a lock washer, a nut, and a retainer which together act to secure a wheel hub to a spindle. The lock washer has a tab which extends through the nut and the retainer, and which wraps around and back over the retainer in order to axially and rotationally secure the retainer. The tab has an initial position that corresponds to an unlocked position and a distal end of the tab extends beyond the hub in the initial position far enough to prevent an end cap from being placed over the tab when the tab is in the initial position. As such, installation of the end cap is not possible until the tab is bent into a locked condition.

A bit including a bit body and a shank depending from a bottom of the bit body. The bit body including an integral washer portion that extends to a rear annular flange and a tapered portion adjacent the rear annular flange that is complementary to an angle of a countersink at a forward end of a bore of a bit holder, radially aligning the bit concentric with the bore of the bit holder. The shank comprises a cap distal portion including a diameter that is less than or equal to a diameter of a forward portion of the shank. The bit includes a retainer disposed circumferentially about the shank, the retainer including a reduced diameter distal section allowing the bit to be manually inserted into the bore of the bit holder a predetermined distance before needing to resort to hammer hits to securely mount the bit in the bore of the bit holder while still allowing the bit to freely rotate within the bore of the bit holder.