Safety wiring worm clamps

[mdawson]

Can someone point me to instructions on the proper safety wiring of worm clamps? There's nothing in AC43.13 that I can find.

Hi Bob

There are 2 quite different purposes in safety wiring worm clamps.

The first as the link in Marty's post shows is to safety wire the bolt so it doesn't come undone and the other is to capture the clamp in the event that it comes off either due to coming undone itself or shrinking of the material it is clamping.

So it depends on the purpose of your question.

As Marty has covered the first I'll do the second.

The main concen with the clamp coming adrift is it falling onto something that can cause damage. Perhaps because they have a background of engines being mounted in pusher configurations some Rotax people safety wire the clamps to stop them going through the prop. I know of no specific methodology as the clamps vary so much with the manufacturer but I basically just use common sense, for the clamp holding the aircleaner I find a hole in the clamp, usually through the screw mechanism somewhere which I can pass the wire through, or if there's a waist, just tightly wrapped around the screw housing and then run it back to the carb which has an ear for the aircleaner safety wire, twist up with minimum slack.

Hope this helps.

Mark

[Reiff Preheat Systems]

Well, here we are deep into the thread and we've talked about everything BUT safety wiring worm clamps.

The reason I'm asking is I'm installing a Reiff preheating system and the instructions state that the worm clamps holding the cylinder bands should be safety wired because they will work loose and break.

The system costs about $500 so I'd kind of like them not to do that.

Actually our instructions do not say "they will work loose and break".

Per our Installation Instructions:

4. Safetywire the clamp screws to insure they will not vibrate loose. If they vibrate loose the heating elements will burn out. Put the wire in the screw slot and around and through the screw housing.

[Reiff Preheat Systems]

Worm clamps are not commonly safety wired.



If so why not ask them? I have seen a few Reiff systems installed on planes & I do not remember seeing safety wires. Maybe they have recently started recommending this, in which case they probably have a recommendation on the proper procedure.

I agree... why not call us and ask if something is not clear in the instructions, rather than posting a question on a forum?

We have always required that the screw be safety wired, since introducing the cylinder heat band in 1996. If you see any in the field that aren't, it's because the installer didn't follow our instructions.

Safety wiring a hose clamp is very simple and quick, and will insure that the clamp does not come loose. If it does, the heating element might not be in good contact with the cylinder and it will overheat when you plug it in, and it will burn out. It's not an airworthiness issue, it's a heater lifespan issue.

[Reiff Preheat Systems]

Bob, did you go to the link that Marty put in post #3? I looked at it and the solution seemed reasonable to me.

The photos in post #3 look good... "Putthe wire in the screw slot and around and through the screw housing."

[Bob Collins]

Let's just slow down a bit, Bob, and take some deep breaths.

This thread is three months old. If you go back to the original date of the post, you'll note that it was when your email systems were down and you weren't getting any email; at least that's what you told me when it came back up and you answered a few emails a few days later (and after this post). I could have called, but my deafness makes it difficult for me to understand people. And "how to safety wire a worm clamp" seems to be right up in the wheelhouse of the homebuilders who frequent an EAA site.

It's a great place to get simple questions answered. It's not an assault on your business (which, you'll note I didn't mention in the original question and I have several worm clamps all over the airplane, not just yours).

You'll note that Marty answered my question within 3 hours of when I asked it. That's the kind of attitude I like about EAAers.

You have an excellent product. I like it. But I'm not that keen on getting slammed by a guy I just gave 500 hard-earned dollars to. If your business is that good,congratulations. Keep up the great work.

But everybody who looks at my system -- and several have so far -- always wants to know where I got it. They're potential customers. Which makes me one of your potential salesmen. If I recommend doing business with you, then they become your potential salesmen. So be nice to your salespeople. Or they'll sell for your competition.

[Reiff Preheat Systems]

Slammed?? We don’t understand why you say that, but sorry you took it that way. That was not the intent. The intent was simply to correct misinformation about our installation instructions that was posted on a public forum, and which lives forever in the archives. We just want to insure that current and future readers have accurate information. Many folks use forums as an information resource, and it doesn’t do them or us any good to have info in the forum archive that is not accurate. In this case it appears to be an unintentional error of omission in failing to mention that our instructions do describe how to safety wire the clamp, and a misstatement of what the instructions say can happen if you don’t.

A second reason for posting was to make sure you had an answer to your question. In your post #11 it did not sound like you were satisfied with the responses so we wanted to indicate our approval of the reply in post #3.

The third reason for responding was to suggest that if you or any other forum users have questions about installing any product, the logical place to start is the folks who made the product. Per the statement at the top of our Installation Instructions…

“If any of these instructions are unclear, please call for clarification before beginning”.

We are the experts about our products, and are the best information source.

I was concerned about your comment that you posted your question here because our email was down, so I checked our email files. We got an email from you on Saturday Jan 5 asking about the harness routing, and we replied on Tues Jan 8. Normally we reply to emails within minutes or hours, not days. So in the reply we stated “Sorry for the delay, we’ve had PC connection issues since Thurs so are a bit behind.“. Then you called us later on Jan 8 to order some harness extensions. To try to make up for the two day response time, we waived the normal $10 charge for the extensions. The point is, if you had another question on Jan 13 when you posted it here, phoning or emailing us would have worked fine and you would have received help immediately or almost immediately. Good customer service is our goal… if a customer feels it is necessary to post an installation question on a forum and wait days or weeks for answers from third parties, that’s not our idea of good service. We also recognize that if there is a question as in this case, it’s probably an indication that our instructions are not clear enough and maybe we need to add a photo or something.

Regarding our delayed response here, it wasn’t 3 months. Wasn’t even 2. The initial post was Jan 13 and we replied March 7. The only reason our reply was delayed that long was that we were not aware of this thread until around March 1. We don’t normally monitor forums, but sometimes receive tips from friends and customers when they see a discussion they think we should contribute to. It then took several days for EAA to register us so we could reply.

The system you bought was $435, not $500, but that’s still a significant sum for most people and we agree with your point that it’s worth the effort to install it well to maximize its lifespan.

We do appreciate all of our customers, and their word of mouth endorsements which have allowed us to grow with very little advertising expense, which allows us to keep our prices down. But if some of the word of mouth on forums is not entirely accurate we hope most people will agree that it’s only fair that we have an opportunity to address it. We assume any such misstatements are unintentional, and we would hope that most people would not view this as “slamming” a customer, or not being “nice”.

Just want to end with a note that we appreciate EAA allowing us to post this. (Rule 8. Please do not use EAA Forums to advertise or promote businesses, organizations, products or services through means such as posting notices on forums. Informational posts are allowed in response to questions or comments). When we recently replied to several questions & statements regarding installing our systems that were posted on another homebuilder forum by you and others, we were told that we violated their rules. It’s certainly the forum owner’s prerogative to set whatever rules they want and we will obviously respect their wishes, but we think the primary value a forum like this offers is the presence of knowledgeable people to answer questions, and policies that drive those people away diminishes the value of the forum as an information resource.