Spinners -- On for years..

[Silverback51]

Originally Posted by patrickt

If you can't loosen one up with a couple whacks of the lead hammer, fashion yourself one of these and you can lay down some pretty serious torque on those spinners.

When looking at one of these, I have always thought they should have added notchs so that the spinner was locked into the tool. As it is it could slip off and you could damage a wheel when you went a$$ over tea kettle across the garage.

[JBo]

65cobra1,
Safety wire is NOT to advise you thatr you have a Knock-on coming off. Safety wire is designed to be used to prevent the problem. It should be twisted tight, with no loops and NEVER reused after removal. If you are anal, 2 per wheel are better than one. This material was used in aircraft (still is) and is designed to keep parts from coming off...not to advise you they are loose...what happens if the safewire tells you at 30,000 ft that your fuel whatever is loose and going to start spraying fuel on your exhaust manifold?
Jbo

[65cobra1]

Originally Posted by JBo

65cobra1,
Safety wire is NOT to advise you that you have a Knock-on coming off. Safety wire is designed to be used to prevent the problem. Jbo

JBo,
I understand what you are saying and I'll put 'em on tight. The reason I asked was when I checked around here, some of the guys that raced cars w / knockoffs said they never used safety wire because the rotation should keep them tight. Others gave me the tight VS loop versions.

I figured I'd put it to the forum.

Thanks for the illustration,
Ivan

[mr0077]

Ivan, for an alternate opinion, many here believe that the wire is/was put on with a slack loop to indicate that the spinner has backed off, not to prevent the spinner from moving.

I don't think safety wire on aviation applications is comparable to its use on knock-off spinners...significantly different forces involved. IMHO, there's no way the safety wire could prevent the spinner from moving; it has no significant strength, and should not be relied on.

[65cobra1]

[quote=mr0077;823497]Ivan, for an alternate opinion, many here believe that the wire is/was put on with a slack loop to indicate that the spinner has backed off, not to prevent the spinner from moving.QUOTE]

mr0077,
What you are saying is what the "Slack loop" group has been telling me.

Just to play it safe, rather than redoing the wires (At least not until I regen more blood cells), I'll put a small kink in the middle of the piece between the two attachments. It shouldn't weaken it and it'll be a good indicator.

Probably a good idea to tap the knockoffs every once in a while.

The wire spinner I used worked pretty well. It was threading the wire and making the end result look neat that caused the bodily damage.

In any case, I think I have the hang of it now for next time.

Thanks for the input,
Ivan

[JBo]

65cobra1,
I've had one come off my ex CSX car and it is not a good thing. I was dumb enough to not have safety wire on them. If rotation kept them on, they'd never come off. It is vibration, lateral force changes and force generated in extreme stops that tend to allow them to walk off.
Safety wire is designed to stop the problem, not be a "tell", hell if you want a "tell" use string...it will do the same thing.
Jbo

[65cobra1]

Well, JBo, the safety wires are on pretty tight. I went out to put a small kink in them and no dice. They look good, tho. A nice clean job.

The real deal was the fact that I was able to get the wheels off (After a year plus, clean them up and get fresh anti-seize on all threads and mating surfaces.

I also realized that I had originally whacked them on too tight. So, when I re-installed, I just whacked the spinners until they stopped moving and left out the last big hit.

I'll watch them this summer and see how all that turns out. Should be OK since I'm a cruiser not a tracker.

Thanks for all the tips...Good stuff!
Ivan

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by Silverback51

When looking at one of these, I have always thought they should have added notchs so that the spinner was locked into the tool.

That's not a bad idea. You could probably do that with a file (sounds like a good summer assignment for one of the kids). You'd have to do both sides of the "ears" though, and you'd have to do all three ears.

[Silverback51]

One other thing I do is to cut a 5 to 6 inch piece of 10 or 12 gauge wire, and then pull the copper strands out of it. I then slip this over the safety wire where it comes in contact with the wheel spokes. This keeps the wire from wearing on the wheel, and does not affect the safety of the application.