locations longitudinally along the axis of the dowel bar 36 second section 84 may compress first section 83 as first section 83 is positioned more closely to second section 84 along the axis of the dowel bar 36 enhancing the friction fit of the first section 83 to the dowel bar 36 resilient protrusions 85 may also be manually disengaged from first section 83 to permit end cap 40 w to be repositioned or otherwise removed as necessary referring now to fig6 d a cross sectional view of a variant of the end cap 40 w illustrates how the first section 83 may contact the second section 84 of the end cap 40 w and lock to the second section 84 without the use of resilient protrusions a portion of the inside surface of second section 84 and a portion of the outside surface of first section 83 may be formed with complementary gripping ridges 89 that are brought into mutual engagement when the first section 83 is slid into contact with the second section 84 second section 84 may compress first section 83 as first section 83 is advanced toward second section 84 along the axis of the dowel bar 36 enhancing the friction fit of the first section 83 to the dowel bar 36 the positioning of gripping ridges 89 on complementary surfaces of the first section 83 and the second section 84 additionally shields the connection and provides an effective one way locking mechanism referring now to fig7 another alternative aspect of an end cap 40 x is illustrated once again similar parts are designated with identical reference characters with the addition of the x symbol to indicate that the parts are.