You are much better off going the way you did, using blue loctite and washers. Even the factory lockwasher setup was flawed, because if you torqued to any given spec, the washers would eventually crush from the load and you have a set of finger tight bolts. Of course they aren't falling off due to the bent over tabs, but still kind of a goofball setup. Better off getting rid of them.
321,000 miles on KZ's that I can remember. Not going to see any more.
