TE/TC Shifter tech tip for all the new huskys

nice

side note ps ive all ready bent the crap outta mine from the hardcore second trail ride gotta pull it and straighten it.

pps great idea but totally unsat safety wire job, i would not sign that one off.

Learned how to safety wire on the flightline in the USAF... agreed that would not be signed off

Good to know those things come loose, but why not just locktite it?

The first twist should go under the wire coming through the right side (far side of the bolt head) that twist should start from under the wire that passes through the hole in the bolt head and should be right hand (clockwise) twisted 9 to 11 twists per inch. Then the twisted wire should wrap around the side of the head of that screw to the bottom side pictured or to the clockwise direction to keep it from twisting loose. If your'e then going to a second screw perhaps the next should be passed through in a way to always pull the bolt tighter as well but the second screw should always be twisted left hand or counter clock wise. Thats to keep the wire from wanting to come up over the top of the fastener instead of wrapping around the hex. As a rule of thumb you should never safety more than 3 fasteners in a row. If you have to then there are specific guidelines for doing this, such as on Brake hats and rotors etc.

Look up FAA regulations on safetying fasteners if you want to learn the proper accepted procedures. That wrap job that is pictured would be never passed or signed off.
It's an art to do it right.

I've been an Airframe & Powerplant mechanic technician for over 22 years. Although I never work on airplanes anymore. Its something you don't forget once you understand the principle and what you are trying to do or what the safety wire is keeping from happening rather.

Looks like a few of us have aircraft experience...LOL....I got my A&"E" license back in the late 60's when I was starting out as a bread-winner. I'd still just use locktite on that bolt tho' :-)

When I first started riding off-road seriously, I safety-wired everything...the ends of the kick-stand springs, drain plug, brake-clamp bolt. Then I discovered lock-tite and have never lost a connector since. I will wire the ends of the puny kick-stand spring on my 14 TE250 tho, it just looks like it wants to jump ship.

Is that a missprint Kawagumby? You said A&"E" licence? Do you mean A&P ?

I'm a loctite guy myself. I really like the thick red gel type stuff they get us at work that comes in a squeeze tube. It works really good. Been using it to keep my kickstand bolt tight on my G450X and nothing so far has ever woked except for it.

I used loads of all colors of loctite on my last hard tail rigid I built from scratch. I ran a heavily reworked over 130hp at rear wheel, stroker 113" Ultima "EL Bruto" engine. This Custom Chopper I built from the ground up and built everything but the drivetrain and controls, It was featured in V-Twin magazine In may of 07'.

It really put loctite products to the ultimate test. I had to buy it by the 12 oz. or larger bottles. I couldn't keep the hardware tight on that thing no matter what I did. It didn't have a single fastener on it with a hexed head and not one single mig weld anywhere. It was 100% Tig welded on everything.

All the fasteners were either Titanium button headed allens or 12 point NAS shouldered grade 12 hardware. Axles were Inconel. Wheels were one of a kind and my own design. The bolts holding on the fenders and other extremities especially would come loose, It was terrible. I had to safety alot of the stuff that loctite wouldn't even keep tight.

Not a misprint, when I got my license (mid sixties) it was officially A&P but all the older guys I worked with called it A&E (airframe and engine) which was the title until sometime in the 50's so that's what I always called it - just kind of habit and out of respect for the old-timers, I guess.

What a beautiful bike you put together...

Oh Ok. I had heard of that from some of the old timers who were instructors at the school I went to back in 1991 and 92. Its Funny, lots of these guys I went to school with had wrenched on aircraft in the military and figured they could just go test out and get there civilian A&Ps. No way man, thats not how it works. Just to prove to a few of them that they couldn't pass anyway. They privately, unofficially allowed a few of them to take an old test to see how they did and not one of them got a score over about 34%percent.. That stopped that idea right in its tracks and shut up alot of the bigmouth Knowitalls real fast. Not one of them could have even come close to passing a single section of the tests. They had to take the entire program themselves like everybody else did.

I thought that was the best part of taking the whole program. I primarily did it to help my skills building dragrace cars. I wrenched on quite a few airplanes and helicopters too but didn't like signing my life away in the logbooks. The ranchers airplanes down here aren't exactly the safest pieces of flying equipment. So I got out of it. I was offered a job as a mechanics recruiter up in Tucson but I told them I use too much profanity and always cuss too much. Ha Ha.

Sorry 'bout the hijack guys... but what the heck...

I got into it when I was about 15, doing grunt work at a small ag aircraft factory in my home town. I loved building those planes - I ended up being lead man of the sheetmetal division. Just like building a bike, building a plane from scratch and seeing it fly was a real thrill to me. I still love the sound of radial engines more than any other. I got out of it in my late 20's because it didn't pay enough to support my family well, but I still missed the work. Most of the guys I worked with were sharp, and I guess I learned about committment to quality then. Later I when I was a small-time bureaucrat in my hometown, I was appointed airport manager (mostly to handle leases) and deal with the FAA. That was pretty cool, I got to mingle with guys who owned a bunch of war birds, a corsair, p-51's, P-40, king cobra... we also had about 3 ag air companies back then when aerial spray was not yet frowned upon, and my old company was still churning out their crop-duster, the Weatherly 201.

Simpler times, and I miss it. I guess like a lot of older guys I'm really feeling like a dinosaur nowadays, but that's the way it goes. Riding is still something I can relate to...simple, man and machine, no excuses, no bs.

I'll let my Berg mates know (especially as I always end up being'trail mechanic' when things go wrong) ha ha

Kawagumby, I know the feeling of being like a dinosaur, trust me. There will always be a place for us. (See below)

I'm the one always carrying the tool bag with everything I might think I could need on the trail and my bike has never broke down, yet (knock on wood) but I am always it seems the trail mechanic.. So there you go!

Well guys, I am an active A&P for a major airline. There is a better alternative to Safety Wire. Its called Safety Cable marketed by Daniels out of Orlando. Takes a special tool of course but when your working on engines it is a real time saver. It is explained here: http://www.dmctools.com/Products/safe-t-cable.html

Anyway, I plan to use that when my shifter bolt comes loose. Mine will look much better than the picture seen above.

Very cool I like that. It goes to show they had to develop something that would do nearly the same thing automatically because there are to many people that don't know how to safety wire properly in the first place who make too many mistakes. This would keep the inspector on friendly terms with the guys who don't know how to do it properly.

I'm surely not saying you don't know how to do it right. I'm just saying there are plenty of mechanics out there who don't know how to do it right or to the specifications. This would definately be a time saver. I still would prefer to do it the old school, proper way though because it is a lost and dying art and it shows more class doing it manually. Practice is the only way in my opinion to learn how to properly safety any hardware.

Thanks for showing us the new fangled tool though. What will they come up with next?

Here is what mine looks like with the Safety Cable installed vs. the above safety wire install:

lol i was thinking surely the wire in the link cant be that bad . like surely it doesnt look mil spec but itll do . so i read all this thread than clicked the link . yeah nah it is that bad .
i like how they went straight over the top and to the furtherest point . so that bolt can still rotate to its hearts content . all that does is keep the bolt with the shifter when it does fall off .

http://www.nord-lock.com/

This is the way to do it...

Isn't that what comes stock on the bikes?