Vent: Wish someone told me about safety wire direction before my first engine job

I was working on a Cessna 172 last Tuesday out at KSDL and had to safety wire a few bolts on the landing gear. I did it the way I thought was right... tightened them up, put the wire through, twisted it nice and neat. Then the senior mechanic walks by, takes one look, and says "that wire will loosen under vibration, you crossed the direction." Turns out I had the wire pulling opposite of how it should for the torque. Man, I felt dumb. Had to redo all of it, cost me an extra hour. Anyone else learn this one the hard way or is it just me?

3 comments

3 Comments

rosebarnes15d ago

Right hand rule is ingrained in me now but it never clicked until I had someone physically show me the vibration path vs the wire twist direction. That visual makes all the difference honestly.

the_nathan15d ago

@rosebarnes hit it right on the head with the visual thing. The whole "wire should pull tighter, not looser" just never clicked in my head until someone drew it out for me on a whiteboard. My dumbass was following the twist direction but missing the actual tension part. The real kicker was learning that the wire has to run opposite the bolt's loosening direction. So if a bolt loosens counterclockwise, your wire has to be twisted so it pulls clockwise. Took me three tries on a magneto once before I got it straight. The senior guys make it look so easy but they probably learned it the same way - by messing up and redoing it.

oscarc5314d ago

Ever had a buddy wrap safety wire around his thumb because he was following the wrong twist direction?