Fun with safety wire
 

After my last track day, which involved two students in a lead/follow format (essentially, with my own track session, 60 minutes on track, 20 minutes off - repeat throughout the day), I killed my brake rotors, and used up half the life of a brand-new set of brake pads.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1ccd50217a.jpg

I ordered new Wilwood directional friction rings from Summit Racing (I would have ordered from Tarmac 88 but their shipping cost to Canada was twice as much). One of the nice things about the Trackspeed Engineering BBK is the safety-wiring for the bolts that hold the rings to the aluminum hats. Unless you have to replace them, in which case you have a whole new set of skills to learn. I borrowed a tool from a fellow club member and set about to learn how to DIY. TSE provides decent instructions but the most valuable tutorial came from a fellow Canuckistan:



Regardless, there will be blood:
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...73dc818326.jpg

Safety wire is frickin' sharp and hard to handle. Wear safety glasses (which I did) and gloves (which I eventually did). After a few hours, this was the result:
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b8840ed692.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b49e6033c1.jpg

Hopefully I didn't fuck it up too badly. Car is back together and I'm ready for next Friday's track day.

Looks right to me. Shame you had to buy new rings- I had a set of the Spec 88 ones listed in the classifieds for a long while, ended up selling them on Ebay for a little more than shipping cost me.

The one circled here for example could have been wrapped around the other way and the twist started at the right(side of the picture) hole. If that makes sense. It's pretty hard to explain

I do a TON of safety wire on the hydroplane. I've seen safety wire that you think is good fail within 15 minutes.

Overall not bad, practice makes perfect.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bbfc54540f.jpg

Edit, i made a picture to illustrate what i mean. There are a couple like this that could be fixed.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dd0342ff30.jpg

Yeah, I should scan the classified more often. I would have bought yours for sure since I knew mine were coming to the end of their service life.

Thanks Erat. I scratched my head over a couple of bolt pairs and, in the end, tried to imagine what would happen if either bolt is loosened. You should have seen some of the early attempts (which were all removed and redone). Not sure how much practice I'll get since (hopefully) the next round of replacements are a few years away.

As a matter of interest, what causes safety wire to fail, other than the obvious one of incorrect installation?

Well i've never actually witnessed it fail, so i can't say for sure. I'd have to guess, from what i've seen, that the main failure i've seen is due to improper wrap around a bolt head with the twist starting to far away from the hole. Another common one is tightness, to tight or loose can cause issues.

If you go back and search about a decade you will find a good number of posts from Hustler and Savington about safety wiring. Also you want to start looking at inconel safety wire.

Been a while, but ISTR that I looked at the bolt(s), and tried to configure the wire to stop any 'undo' motion. So I would grade that one circled as a 'pass', maybe a little tight though.

I presume the tool you borrowed was a pair of the safety wire pliers that apply the twist, handy devices when you have them in the toolbox, and an incentive to do sump plugs etc too!

I always had a spare set of rotors on hand, already mounted on a set set of hats and wired ready to go. When the old rotors came off the car, I then had a bit of time to prep the new set, less rush, less chance of a mistake in the prep.

That wire i circled is going to wiggle, vibrate, and move around. It will eventually cut itself on the edge of the hole. It will not last, trust me.
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Okay, you convinced me to re-do that one. Any other borderline cases you spotted? Might as well do them while I'm there. Thanks.

I used the cheap WW rotor, so they were replaced pretty frequently. I never found a broken wire. Not saying it can't happen, just that it never happened to me.

​​​​​​​Could be more of an issue if you use the longer life rotors I guess ...