erich weaver

erich weaver

Well Known Member
Patron
Got my prop back from servicing the other day and have it mounted now, but having a heck of a time doing the safety wire satisfactorily. My biggest obstacle is that the top of the castle nuts that are used on my prop are beveled/tapered on the top. As a result, when the safety wire is wrapped around the side of the nut, it wants to slide up the nut in the direction of the taper - I am unable to keep the wire in place and snug. I noticed from the video of the new prop torquing tool that Alan at Antisplat is selling, that the castle nuts on his Hartzell hub do not have this tapering feature, and thus the safety wire can be wrapped around the side of the nut with no tendency to loosen. Not sure why Whirlwind has used a different type of castle nut, but its just not working for me. Do others with this prop have the same sucky castle nuts that taper at the top?

As a possible alternative, Im considering running the wire through the roll pin and then directly back accross the diameter of the nut to the entry point, and start twisting from there (hope that can be visualized). Non-conventional, but at least then I have a snug attachment point to the nut. I dont really see the downside. Suggestions?

erich
 
Run the wire over the top of the nut

It is perfectly acceptable to run the safety wire over the top of the nut. There are times when you may not be able to run the wire along the side of the nut due to clearance, or in this case the taper of the nut itself. You will run into this problem often with safety wire and castle nuts. You just can't get wire tight, so run it across the top.

Blue skies,

Erik
RV6 953BL 1.1 hours TT and still not done ;)
 
Tricky

It is a little tricky and at least one of the nuts will be in a weird position. I put the wire through the roll pin and then safetied as normal. Again, a little challenging but workable.
 
Five hours of trying to accomplish "saftied as normal" is enough for me. I think maybe one or two of the nuts are clocked in an ok position and the rest completely suck, but I can muddle through that problem with a little patience. Just havent been able to snug up the wire without it slipping up that useless, good-for-nothing taper on top of the castle nuts. Going to go for the across the top method and hope for better results.

thanks

erich
 
Having done this a few times with the WW props and the same nuts you're talking about I appreciate your frustration.

Regardless of the nut/hole position, I simply thread the wire through the hole then grab the end of the wire with a set of curved needle nose pliers. From there I just use a screw driver to hold the wire nice and straight with one hand (so it can't slip over the tapered nut) while I twist with the safety wire pliers with my other hand. Pretty simple and makes for a nice tidy, tight, and standard finish.

Good Luck, you can do it :)!

erich weaver said:
Five hours of trying to accomplish "saftied as normal" is enough for me. I think maybe one or two of the nuts are clocked in an ok position and the rest completely suck, but I can muddle through that problem with a little patience. Just havent been able to snug up the wire without it slipping up that useless, good-for-nothing taper on top of the castle nuts. Going to go for the across the top method and hope for better results.

thanks

erich
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