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  #1  
Old 03-29-2016, 11:43 AM
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nippaero nippaero is offline
 
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Default Alternator Bolt Safety Wiring

I am looking for some suggestions on how to best safety wire the three bolts that are on my plane power alternator. One in the case, one in the alternator and one in the starter. I am thinking the two bolts on the adjustment bracket can be wired together but what about the lone bolt that goes through the starter?

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  #2  
Old 03-29-2016, 12:31 PM
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Drill a small hole in the adjustment bar to secure the safety. You can also just run the safety wire around the slot in the adjustment bar.

I ran one safety from the Sky-Tech starter forward left bolt around the front of the starter to the bolt that attaches the alt to the start. Use some clear plastic sleeve to protect the metal from chafing.

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Last edited by Raymo : 03-29-2016 at 12:35 PM.
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  #3  
Old 04-15-2016, 02:07 PM
BonitaRV8 BonitaRV8 is offline
 
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I used to just wire around the bracket until I had a DAR make me drill a hole in the bracket and wire through the hole. About 200 hours on the engine the alternator light came on in flight and it turns out the bracket failed right where we drilled the hole for the safety wire causing the belt to slip... I have reverted to the old way.
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Old 04-15-2016, 03:30 PM
rightrudder rightrudder is offline
 
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What Ray said. Here's a pic of mine. The alternator bolt wire is wrapped the wrong way (it's since been corrected), but you get the idea.

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Old 04-15-2016, 09:32 PM
SHIPCHIEF SHIPCHIEF is offline
 
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I don't safety wire these, I use elastic stop nuts and or double nut the bolts.
Never had a problem.
On the other hand, I have had, and seen on other 4 cylinder Lycomings, broken adjustment bars and a broken alternator mount.
If you drill a hole in the adjustment bar, do it as pictured. I would avoid drilling the beams of the bar adjacent to the slot.
The breaks of the adjustment bars I have seen were in line with the alternator bolt. You might consider a wide washer to distribute the load wider than the head of the bolt, and to hold the bar in the event that it breaks.
The alternator mount that was broken was a VAN's lightweight mount for Narrow Deck engine, so you probably will never see one of those.
This is an important area to inspect regularly, especially with today's electricity dependent aircraft (EFIS, Electronic ignitions, electronic injection etc).
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Last edited by SHIPCHIEF : 04-15-2016 at 09:38 PM.
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Old 04-15-2016, 09:54 PM
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There is this thread with another nice way to accomplish this.
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  #7  
Old 04-16-2016, 05:52 AM
BillL BillL is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bruceh View Post
There is this thread with another nice way to accomplish this.
+1 - I searched and found this last week! Great TIP. I did not have the tinnermans on hand, so took a dremel and split a back up washer, set the rivet with the washer, and then removed the washer. The rivet is captured and serves as a flanged post for the safety wire. It worked great! Elegant design!

Oh - I turned the long alt pivot bolt around as it will hit the flywheel if trying to replace the alt with the prop on.
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Last edited by BillL : 04-16-2016 at 06:25 AM.
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