It's a judgement call, I guess, but these bolts hold the rear seal on the main bearing. If the seal leaked, there could be a fire in the back of the boat, and a bearing failure. Saving an hour of frustration could cost the race, the engine, the boat, and the lives of the crew. Or it could just cost a few litres of oil, the race, a few thousand dollars in parts, and a week in the shop. ... I say it's worth putting it in.
it's worth putting it in... but it's also worth it to learn a new way to do this ... i haven't worked with this grade of wire before - am assuming it is special because of your reference to it's memory characteristics - but i would say two small tweezers and a really comfortable bench and a looong piece of that Lockwire and you can do this is 90 minutes in one go. yes, i think the tools are wrong
I've been an aircraft mechanic for 34 years & the hardest safteying I've done was on 747 engines where you stand on the top rung of a 12 foot ladder, work 1 arm through a foot & a half of tubing to get to the core of the engine then turn around & face away from the engine because your elbow would bend in the wrong direction if you faced it , then do the safety 1 handed blind . Oh & by the way the plane is at the gate , its an hour & a half late ,400 people on board half of them watching you. Fun
Don't envy you that one - that sounds like a systematic design flaw! But my guess is that something that complicated and tight-toleranced is always going to have some procedure that's harder than it should be - unless they redesigned for maintenance and increased the development time and cost.
William Chamberlain sounds like a task that the engine mfgr thought would only be done during the scheduled R&R, or at least when it's not on the plane. Then the airline decided that would cost too much, and surely could be done in the field (hey, it's only a couple of fasteners right)
Petr75661 'Fraid I disagree: that would be mere purgatory- albeit within one of the inner circles. No, hell would be having to answer questions on the subject at the same time…
Got a message yesterday from eas52012, who used to work on T58s for the military. He says this particular job was called the Hell Hole... I can't think of a better name for it !
Good old 6 and 7 baring package! Also the hell hole. Just piping in for a bit, starting watching this yesterday and now I see I should have commented then too!
Thank you very much. If I had ten times the dexterity, and ten times the patience, I would be apprehensive about reaching into a human. ! Immense respect.
And I thought the lock wiring inside a planetary gearset I did a few months back was bad! I admire the fact that you approached it with a smile on your face!
this reminds me a joke when a gynecologist attempts a job as car mechanic. they give him a car to repair. when its done the boss comes in..here is a hundred for the repair and another 4 for doing it thru the exhaust pipe...
Started in Engineering in 1979.., you are the calmest, most professional guy that I have seen..., including working through 3 America’s Cups... I guess that’s why you are successful on jets👍 Isn’t funny how we dismiss what we do.., you said it was boring.., yet anyone worth their salt was glued to the end... great skills including your patience!
A couple of people suggested using a marker to show where the lockwire holes were, maybe ok, maybe not such a good idea. I worked 5 years as an engineering technician for a company that made pitot tubes and air temperature sensors for aircraft and jet engines. During that time there were a lot of tests on parts that had been contaminated on purpose with markers and plastic from protective caps. When the parts got heated to normal operating temperatures, metallurgical changes often took place that resulted in cracks and potential part failure. Changes due to the residue from the marker or plastic. Sulfur was often the culprit. Plastic caps were always checked before use in production. Just a note of caution. I love the videos, you should invite Mike Rowe to your shop so he could check out your "dirty job". Good luck!
Maintenance was never even considered during design of the T58. If it was possible, then that's all that was required. When the engine that replaced it, the T700, was designed, ease of maintenance was an important specification set out by the US army, who was the main customer. The T700 is in the blackhawk and Apache, and it requires less maintenance than the T58.
This was once of your best videos; it teaches your approach to a tough problem. Patience, perseverance and faith in yourself and the manufacturer. I got tense just watching! I learned a lot. Thank you.
I work on race cars all day and I share your frustration when trying to lockwire turbocharger manifold flange bolts into place in the engine bays of BMW's..thank you for making these videos!
You are right. Judging by the way it fell, it looked to be less dense than metal. However, we will investigate, and attempt to remove the object. Thanks for your info!
Well done this extremly long and sometimes frustrating job! Nice to show others how this kind of work really can be! Kind Regards from a former MTU gas turbine mechanic in Munich, Germany! Kind Regards Simon
As explained inthe video, the GE overhaul manual calls for single-pass lockwire. Also, despite the name, lock wire does not lock the fastener in position. It's purpose is to keep the fastener from coming out if it comes loose.
Reminds me of the 75 hr insp on the GE F110 on the later F-16's when I was in the military. GE had a big problem with the outer combustion chamber air shrouds coming loose & contacting the internal fuel nozzle lines. Anyway, the only way the inspect the fwd outer chamber was to remove 1 of 3 bolts that were S/W together that held the spark ignitor boss plate on the core, thru the fan case, thru an ECS access door (3 levels deep...insane). You then would insert a 4mm medical flexscope thru the bolt hole to access the forward part (outside of the c/c.) After you were done with the boro, you needed reinstall the bolt & re-safety. (note, it was all too deep to reach by hand with the engine installed). The entire job was an all day deal. A real nightmare considering if you dropped anything, it's an engine change & your ass is grass.... I grew to hate those damn 75 hr boro's.
You said there was no way to tell where the holes are? You should get an LED or some kind of bulb and put it into the hole on the top of the bolt so that light will shine out of the holes.
When it was introduced, the T58 was the first turbine engine for helicopters. It was more powerful, much lighter, and vastly more reliable than the piston engines it replaced. This engine ended all designs for piston engine medium lift helicopters. Details like ease of service and lockwire installation weren't considered important at the time. The direct successor to this engine, the T700, was designed to be more easily serviced.
I retired 6 years ago. I did spend a good part of my time in the military , in what was called ,engine bay , module shop. I'm going to have PTSD after seeing this video . Good Job
I have real empathy with you on this. Being a surgeon does not make the job any easier I can assure you, speaking from experience having worked on both humans and jet engines!! Great videos JayZ!
A tip i hear from a friend of mine is to grab a small LED and a battery. put the LED in the hole of the nut, and put the leads on the ends on the battery. then you can see the light shining out of the holes in the side of the bolts.
I used to volunteer to do the safety wiring on the fuel controls for the jet engines back when I was in the U.S. Navy. The job itself was a pain in the butt, you had lay down on your back and reach up where you couldn't see to safety wire several places where you did it all by feel. You could barely get an inspection mirror in position to verify the quality of the work. It was my favorite task because the JP5 would be dripping down on me the whole time. I know that sounds a bit like torture but the Chief would give me the rest of the shift off to go change my uniform. That's a deal I didn't mind taking.
You need a set of locking forceps, bent and straight jaw. Princess Auto has a ton of different sizes (for Canada; US try Harbor Freight). Or Amazon. They have nice rubber-coated holes in the handles, makes them easy to control with 2 fingers, rather than needing several fingers to hold on to pliers handles. Less fingers in the way is better. You could probably grind the serrates off the jaws if you're worried about nicking the wire. I don't work on jet engines, but I do a lot of delicate electronic wiring in impossible locations.
EXCELLENT Job! You made it funny and entertaining and educational... this is hard to do. :) I know this is an older video but I just found you. I'm subbed up and looking forward to binge watching your videos. Thanks for the education
I know nothing about jet engines and had never even heard of lockwiring until today yet sat quite engrossed in your video. You're a UA-cam natural sir! ps. I was mildly concerned that you remembered to torque up the bolt you had to loosen.
One trick is try different fasteners in-order to find ones with favorable Lock Wire Positions at the correct torque. This requires a bit of trail and error since the bolts tend to be made with random wire hole(s) to thread orientations and the holes tend to have random start orientations. But probably well worth spending the time doing the relatively easy task of bolting and unbolting over fiddling with lock wire for hours! It also helps if you can mark the wire hole locations but I'd be worried about the contamination from the paint/marker combined with high temperatures.
One of the most difficult Safety Wires (Lock Wires) I've had to do is the 4 Mil bolt on an F110 with the lower outer ducts still installed. You wire across a two inch gap from the 4 Mil bolt to the fuel nozzle, through an inch and a half wide hole in the outer duct 6 inches away from where you're wiring.
Regarding the 8 bolts, if the bolts don’t have any axial indicator mark above the radial holes and if it’s allowed in there and if it is visible that far in, a sharpie mark above each of those holes on the head of the bolt might be useful. And if all of those holes are the same distance from that ring (the thing they’re bolted into), a sharpie mark on the pliers that distance from the tip of the pliers could be used to get the correct vertical position. Grab the wire at the pliers sharpie line, touch the end of the pliers to that surface the bolts are in, translate over, and feed it into the bolt head - keeping the wire lined up with a sharpie mark on the bolt.
I have done it that way exactly zero times as I’m sure you can tell by the fact that I called the rear seal a ring thing. Not meant to be criticism or a critique. I ran a mental simulation and thought, from first principles and from the comforts of the internets, what might work. The previously described process could [“in theory”] allow one to get the wire aligned in two axes. Which may or may not be of any use when working at the bottom of a hole via a long stick and work hardening wire that can also act as a spring and pop right back out of the hole. Should I stick to the thumbs up button in the future?
If you are curious, you could try running the lockwire through a hose. Similar to how the brake cable on a bicycle works, I think this can offer a bit more control over free end of the wire and remove some of the bending.
That is the toughest area to safety wire on the entire engine. A young Marine showed me the best way to do it and it still took three tries and I still had not finished before lunch.
And i thought some of the lock wiring i had to do on maritime equipment for offshore drilling was tough... This is just ridicules. Much respect to you sir!
How calm you are, when you say the words "I am pissed off". Awesome patience! I know this kind of jobs from several machine-repairs in our workshop, there are only 10mm of space for turning a bolt or nut, and you think about taking a plasma cutter to "make some space" :)
Skipped through parts of the video, but laughed hysterically at many of the parts. I would never have the patience to do that. Kudos to you Jay for your persistence even amidst frustration. I guess there was no other way to design that engine to make it easier to lockwire. Makes you wonder if the engineers had maintenance in mind when they designed it.
First torque the screw. Then note the hole alignment then take the screw out. Now with the screw out start the lock wire and twist it close to your finished length. Now reinstall it again torquing it and then finish required twists and go through other screw and pig tail it. I used this trick on Huey’s
I would actually like to try this. I find great relief in accomplishing a task I've once thought impossible. I may sound crazy. When I was 20 I rebuilt my first car engine BMW S52 in my parents garage, with zero engine knowledge of engine assembly/dissassembly with a book at hand. It seemed impossible at the start. But 1 week of daily work and was amazing it fired up on the first crank. Still runs like a champ.
It's a helluvalot easier if you buy some extra long surgical needle holders, smooth or serrated, and they make them angled. Buy a used fiber optic endoscope or bores cope to find your holes. I used to sew in the back wall of an Aortic graft in a deeper hole. We used to close the abdomen with sterile surgical wire using the same type twister. Can't kink it or it'll fracture, intestines want to spill out then. Good video, be smooth with wire.
+112doc I think your work might be a step or two above mine. As cool as they might seem, turbine engines are fairly crude and simple compared to human bodies. I think even fighter pilots might be a bit stressed with the responsibilities of a surgeon. Cheers!
+AgentJayZ I was thinking the same thing as 112doc, and was going to suggest similar tools. Despite the "crudity" of what you are doing, I agree they would make life simpler. Love your work, thank you.
+AgentJayZ It also occurred to me that a temporary cover plate over the bearing might help prevent contamination. Perhaps a plastic disk (or a bath plug) that fits into the bore, leaving the work area exposed. Just an idea, it may not be practical, and may even be UNdesirable. :)
@77 even us crappy mechanics would have covered the hole with a rag to stop any crap falling down it, im suprised an aircaft guy has crappier tools than i do for vintage motorcycles
Thats pretty wicked man! I've been there done that. I use to lockwire my tail off on the old F-15 engines (F100-100). This one looks painful even with a single strand....good job!
19:37 is bolt Nr3 not wired backwards? if you tension the wire it wants to loosen the bolt or has it to be more to be qualify as backwards? or dose the wire stiffness itself hold the bolt in place? loosening through vibration happens in very short time burst whit no load on the bolt an free float, but there shouldn't be any reverse torque on the bolt...
I did the T-53 powershaft bolt lockwire and the shit around it when finishing off my trade test (Hot end inspection and dimension check after fault finding). God that took forever! The test had a time limit too, not a good few days that's for sure.
oly hard part about this is not contaminating the bearing. spend time in the military at low rank as a turbine engine mech and you will be doing every shit safety wire job there is. cant you safety wire blind, upside down and backwards with one hand? also a telescoping mirror will help you find those safety lock holes.
Reminds me of the rear bearing cover of the T-53. We're not allowed to do single stranded so I had to go double. Two sets of three and one set of two. Not the sort of holdup you want for a trade test and oh, you can fail on taking too long too. The horror.
You know, this looks like it might be a lot easier if you could get some fine-tip hemostats, about 18" long should do it, but anything longer than 10" should do. Hemostats are usually found as part of a surgeon's tools, but they are a real time-saver anywhere you find similar close-in spaces where you need to clamp and/or manipulate small parts. You know, small parts like lock-wire, in small places like the one showcased in this video.
Not Nerves of Steel... NERVES OF LOCKWIRE! Thats what i love about your work: The manual says ist, so it has to be done. No questions, just do it :) This separates the "do it yourselfer" from the real technician! Great Video!
we had the T58 in the CH-46's i worked on in the Marine Corps and that bird has some difficult safety wire jobs. But I gotta say DANG i'd hate to have to do that esp. since I have large hands. lol
Excellent work. US canoe club, we would use center punch to mark the head to tell where the hole was. Glad I am not the one doing the fine work JayZ is.
AgentJayZ im curious why you didnt stuff a rag down the center hole? Not trying to armchair quarterback but figured you had a reason (Edit) lol you answered this exact question in the next comment down, haha, nevermind!
fantastic job and that is oil area safe-t cable not allowed too. you can take small tip long flatscrewdriver and do there a hole in , like a sweedle needle but you use take two of them and using for twisting only. Like that your hand extension. have fun :DDD
We have a machine where i work, that requires lockwire in a very difficult place, we use one of those inspection cameras made by Rigid, i'm sure there is other brands out there, it allows us to see the hole and makes really frustrating job tolerable. Good video
I watched the whole thing, drama and frustration to the max...Was retrained for aerospace assembly... never got a job at it, but I did enjoy lockwire... was curious about the size of lockwire you were using, I have used a couple sizes and understand the aircraft specs will often specify size and number of twists and so on... I now use lockwire recreationally ...
Stuff a rag in that hole, with a magnet on top, to catch any metal....... Can you mark the top of the bolt, with a marker.. Make your mark inline with the lock wire holes ???? If they don't line-up for you, take it out, and try another bolt.....Just a suggestion from an old Heavy Equipment Mechanic from Miramichi, New Brunswick... You have really great learning videos..... Jim...
just a thought you could mark the head of the bolts with a marker where the holes for the lockwire are. i wish you luck with it. you are a hard working man. keep it up.
I thought turbine bearings had fully pressurized lubrication? Are you saying the rear bearing on this engine has lubricating oil simply squirted on it?!
They all are. That's what I call pressurized lubrication. All the bearings are ball or roller. No journal bearings like a piston engine. Even those bearings are not "supported on pressurized oil". The oil pressure is there to make it flow to the bearing. When it gets there it is released, and the oil film is caused by the movement of the bearing. Yes. Calm down and look into it, grasshopper...
Would a borescope help with finding the holes on those? I realize it would be one extra thing in the way. I mean, I know it's just a question of benefits versus drawbacks more or less. It just seems like it would be useful to me to have a camera down there where you could see the hole. I also realize that working on model aircraft isn't nearly as difficult as the real thing.
ExStatic Bass i think finding the hole position to start isn't actually the (more) hard part, just feeling around approx 90 degrees of the head. The tough part is getting the wire through it, and teh borescope would just get in the way then. My guess anyway
I can understand the need for lock wire in an aviation application, where a helicopter falling out of the sky would be a bad thing, but in a motorsport application, where I would assume that maintenance is far more frequent (such as racing catamarans that get their engines rebuilt often due to saltwater ingestion), are there times when an engine builder will omit certain process such as this to save time, knowing that the likelihood of screw backing itself out, is unlike before the next rebuild?
Jiminy criminy! That's brutally exacting work. Would use of a borescope make the threading part go easier? I like the idea of marking the tops of the bolts so you know the location of the lock-wire holes.
Looks like you need some forceps/hemostats or something, you can get some pretty long forceps off of ebay or different sites. Jet surgery! Right now its like you are trying to suture with pliers.
Wow, this is tough to watch. You have patience, AgentJayZ. Would it be useful to mark the top of the bolts with a Sharpie or similar to show the lock wire hole location, before they are installed?
It was painful to watch you do this, it really isn't that hard. The secret is to have the piece of lock wire very, very long. Pull it completely through the first bolt and leave the surplus hanging out of the way as you feed it through the next one, once you have it through, pull it tight all the way through again so you have heaps and heaps of surplus again. Do this all the way around, at the end you should have a foot left over, doesn't matter, the wire is cheap. At the 19:29 mark, the bolt at the 1 o/clockish position near the "S/N" mark on the housing, is lock wired to undo. Wait until you have to do lock wires by feel, you can't actually see them, they are fun. If you have to do this often and it takes you this long, you may want to invest in the Bergen Cable system.
My thoughts go to two items during this job.. ( I just love this type of fiddley stuff) FIrst why not have a few pairs of long straight medical hemostats to help turn the wire..? They are thinner, and more able to be turned axially during the "hole find" operation. Second, is there a reason why you cant pre-mark the wire hole direction on top of the bolts..? Fantastic stuff... your videos make me want to pursue more mechanical jobs... Thank you very much for filming this stuff for me !!
Thank you for your quick response. I though I was replying to Russ Linzmeier on his at-the-gate lockwire emergency. As is it I understand you replied to me as though I was commenting on your deeply challenging lockwire task. If I understand correctly the engine being worked on goes into a raceboat, and in that context I understand the thrill of completing a difficult task and (in my case) accident damage to my pickup and the joy of driving it again. No victory dinner needed!
I watched it all. Maybe you need a very petite assistant who could stick her hand all the way down in there and get a better grip on things-it seems like the main source of difficulty is just from having to work at a distance with pliers and tools (?). Or maybe you could use your camera to zoom in and watch on a monitor so that you'd have a better view of the work area. In any case, I admire your patience. I'm glad there are mechanics who will do whatever has to be done, no matter how difficult.
so you couldn't take three lock wire bolts one master bolt in the middle and lock wire it to the other two then bolt then tighten if you allow the loop to stay loose over the top?
This engine went directly into the boat and won the next race. That is my reward and my satisfaction.
People notice when you win.
It's a judgement call, I guess, but these bolts hold the rear seal on the main bearing. If the seal leaked, there could be a fire in the back of the boat, and a bearing failure.
Saving an hour of frustration could cost the race, the engine, the boat, and the lives of the crew. Or it could just cost a few litres of oil, the race, a few thousand dollars in parts, and a week in the shop.
... I say it's worth putting it in.
it's worth putting it in... but it's also worth it to learn a new way to do this ... i haven't worked with this grade of wire before - am assuming it is special because of your reference to it's memory characteristics - but i would say two small tweezers and a really comfortable bench and a looong piece of that Lockwire and you can do this is 90 minutes in one go. yes, i think the tools are wrong
I've been an aircraft mechanic for 34 years & the hardest safteying I've done was on 747 engines where you stand on the top rung of a 12 foot ladder, work 1 arm through a foot & a half of tubing to get to the core of the engine then turn around & face away from the engine because your elbow would bend in the wrong direction if you faced it , then do the safety 1 handed blind . Oh & by the way the plane is at the gate , its an hour & a half late ,400 people on board half of them watching you. Fun
Don't envy you that one - that sounds like a systematic design flaw! But my guess is that something that complicated and tight-toleranced is always going to have some procedure that's harder than it should be - unless they redesigned for maintenance and increased the development time and cost.
William Chamberlain sounds like a task that the engine mfgr thought would only be done during the scheduled R&R, or at least when it's not on the plane. Then the airline decided that would cost too much, and surely could be done in the field (hey, it's only a couple of fasteners right)
'It's like working over an open eye ball' *drops pick in eye*
Seriously though, great work and just learning about lock wire. Very informative!
technicians who go to hell will be forced to lockwire an infinite amount of bolts in a bottomless shaft
Petr75661 'Fraid I disagree: that would be mere purgatory- albeit within one of the inner circles. No, hell would be having to answer questions on the subject at the same time…
Got a message yesterday from eas52012, who used to work on T58s for the military. He says this particular job was called the Hell Hole...
I can't think of a better name for it !
I would call it a bad engine design
@16:03 you see a tiny piece of metal going down that hole....
DataStorm teehee I was just coming to the comments to say the same thing! How weird 1 day apart 5yrs later.
Good old 6 and 7 baring package! Also the hell hole. Just piping in for a bit, starting watching this yesterday and now I see I should have commented then too!
I have serious questions whether my jet engine would get serviced if I was faced with that! There has to be a better way/tool/jig!
That was impressive but doing it without cursing was remarkable.
- he said there was a lot edited out! :)
Thank you very much. If I had ten times the dexterity, and ten times the patience, I would be apprehensive about reaching into a human. !
Immense respect.
And I thought the lock wiring inside a planetary gearset I did a few months back was bad! I admire the fact that you approached it with a smile on your face!
this reminds me a joke when a gynecologist attempts a job as car mechanic. they give him a car to repair. when its done the boss comes in..here is a hundred for the repair and another 4 for doing it thru the exhaust pipe...
Started in Engineering in 1979.., you are the calmest, most professional guy that I have seen..., including working through 3 America’s Cups...
I guess that’s why you are successful on jets👍
Isn’t funny how we dismiss what we do.., you said it was boring.., yet anyone worth their salt was glued to the end... great skills including your patience!
A couple of people suggested using a marker to show where the lockwire holes were, maybe ok, maybe not such a good idea. I worked 5 years as an engineering technician for a company that made pitot tubes and air temperature sensors for aircraft and jet engines. During that time there were a lot of tests on parts that had been contaminated on purpose with markers and plastic from protective caps. When the parts got heated to normal operating temperatures, metallurgical changes often took place that resulted in cracks and potential part failure. Changes due to the residue from the marker or plastic. Sulfur was often the culprit. Plastic caps were always checked before use in production. Just a note of caution. I love the videos, you should invite Mike Rowe to your shop so he could check out your "dirty job". Good luck!
Maintenance was never even considered during design of the T58. If it was possible, then that's all that was required. When the engine that replaced it, the T700, was designed, ease of maintenance was an important specification set out by the US army, who was the main customer.
The T700 is in the blackhawk and Apache, and it requires less maintenance than the T58.
I think the T700 was based on a "modular design" with like 5 or 7 Field Replaceable Units if I recall correctly too. ... been a long time...
This was once of your best videos; it teaches your approach to a tough problem. Patience, perseverance and faith in yourself and the manufacturer. I got tense just watching! I learned a lot. Thank you.
Oh, there's over an hour edited out of this. I'm surprised anybody would watch this !
I work on race cars all day and I share your frustration when trying to lockwire turbocharger manifold flange bolts into place in the engine bays of BMW's..thank you for making these videos!
this was extremely enjoyable to watch. nothing like seeing a piece of kit testing a man's patience.
You are right. Judging by the way it fell, it looked to be less dense than metal. However, we will investigate, and attempt to remove the object. Thanks for your info!
Well done this extremly long and sometimes frustrating job! Nice to show others how this kind of work really can be! Kind Regards from a former MTU gas turbine mechanic in Munich, Germany! Kind Regards Simon
As explained inthe video, the GE overhaul manual calls for single-pass lockwire.
Also, despite the name, lock wire does not lock the fastener in position. It's purpose is to keep the fastener from coming out if it comes loose.
Reminds me of the 75 hr insp on the GE F110 on the later F-16's when I was in the military. GE had a big problem with the outer combustion chamber air shrouds coming loose & contacting the internal fuel nozzle lines. Anyway, the only way the inspect the fwd outer chamber was to remove 1 of 3 bolts that were S/W together that held the spark ignitor boss plate on the core, thru the fan case, thru an ECS access door (3 levels deep...insane). You then would insert a 4mm medical flexscope thru the bolt hole to access the forward part (outside of the c/c.) After you were done with the boro, you needed reinstall the bolt & re-safety. (note, it was all too deep to reach by hand with the engine installed). The entire job was an all day deal. A real nightmare considering if you dropped anything, it's an engine change & your ass is grass....
I grew to hate those damn 75 hr boro's.
You said there was no way to tell where the holes are? You should get an LED or some kind of bulb and put it into the hole on the top of the bolt so that light will shine out of the holes.
When it was introduced, the T58 was the first turbine engine for helicopters. It was more powerful, much lighter, and vastly more reliable than the piston engines it replaced.
This engine ended all designs for piston engine medium lift helicopters.
Details like ease of service and lockwire installation weren't considered important at the time.
The direct successor to this engine, the T700, was designed to be more easily serviced.
I retired 6 years ago. I did spend a good part of my time in the military , in what was called ,engine bay , module shop. I'm going to have PTSD after seeing this video . Good Job
I have real empathy with you on this. Being a surgeon does not make the job any easier I can assure you, speaking from experience having worked on both humans and jet engines!! Great videos JayZ!
I could watch you lockwire stuff all day.
A tip i hear from a friend of mine is to grab a small LED and a battery. put the LED in the hole of the nut, and put the leads on the ends on the battery. then you can see the light shining out of the holes in the side of the bolts.
I used to volunteer to do the safety wiring on the fuel controls for the jet engines back when I was in the U.S. Navy.
The job itself was a pain in the butt, you had lay down on your back and reach up where you couldn't see to safety wire several places where you did it all by feel. You could barely get an inspection mirror in position to verify the quality of the work.
It was my favorite task because the JP5 would be dripping down on me the whole time. I know that sounds a bit like torture but the Chief would give me the rest of the shift off to go change my uniform. That's a deal I didn't mind taking.
I really admire your calmness. Great video.
That is a good suggestion, and what I should have had in place.
You need a set of locking forceps, bent and straight jaw. Princess Auto has a ton of different sizes (for Canada; US try Harbor Freight). Or Amazon. They have nice rubber-coated holes in the handles, makes them easy to control with 2 fingers, rather than needing several fingers to hold on to pliers handles. Less fingers in the way is better. You could probably grind the serrates off the jaws if you're worried about nicking the wire. I don't work on jet engines, but I do a lot of delicate electronic wiring in impossible locations.
Nerves of steel! You would be a champion at the game of operation after a few hours practicing in that hell hole.
EXCELLENT Job! You made it funny and entertaining and educational... this is hard to do. :) I know this is an older video but I just found you. I'm subbed up and looking forward to binge watching your videos. Thanks for the education
Pualani Corr arent they great! Imagine how lucky you'd be to apprentice with Jay
I know nothing about jet engines and had never even heard of lockwiring until today yet sat quite engrossed in your video. You're a UA-cam natural sir!
ps. I was mildly concerned that you remembered to torque up the bolt you had to loosen.
One trick is try different fasteners in-order to find ones with favorable Lock Wire Positions at the correct torque. This requires a bit of trail and error since the bolts tend to be made with random wire hole(s) to thread orientations and the holes tend to have random start orientations. But probably well worth spending the time doing the relatively easy task of bolting and unbolting over fiddling with lock wire for hours! It also helps if you can mark the wire hole locations but I'd be worried about the contamination from the paint/marker combined with high temperatures.
One of the most difficult Safety Wires (Lock Wires) I've had to do is the 4 Mil bolt on an F110 with the lower outer ducts still installed. You wire across a two inch gap from the 4 Mil bolt to the fuel nozzle, through an inch and a half wide hole in the outer duct 6 inches away from where you're wiring.
Regarding the 8 bolts, if the bolts don’t have any axial indicator mark above the radial holes and if it’s allowed in there and if it is visible that far in, a sharpie mark above each of those holes on the head of the bolt might be useful. And if all of those holes are the same distance from that ring (the thing they’re bolted into), a sharpie mark on the pliers that distance from the tip of the pliers could be used to get the correct vertical position. Grab the wire at the pliers sharpie line, touch the end of the pliers to that surface the bolts are in, translate over, and feed it into the bolt head - keeping the wire lined up with a sharpie mark on the bolt.
Thanks. How many times have you done it that way?
I have done it that way exactly zero times as I’m sure you can tell by the fact that I called the rear seal a ring thing.
Not meant to be criticism or a critique.
I ran a mental simulation and thought, from first principles and from the comforts of the internets, what might work.
The previously described process could [“in theory”] allow one to get the wire aligned in two axes. Which may or may not be of any use when working at the bottom of a hole via a long stick and work hardening wire that can also act as a spring and pop right back out of the hole.
Should I stick to the thumbs up button in the future?
BTW, did i see a fragment of the wire fall down the shaft @16:03 ?
If you are curious, you could try running the lockwire through a hose. Similar to how the brake cable on a bicycle works, I think this can offer a bit more control over free end of the wire and remove some of the bending.
That is the toughest area to safety wire on the entire engine. A young Marine showed me the best way to do it and it still took three tries and I still had not finished before lunch.
And i thought some of the lock wiring i had to do on maritime equipment for offshore drilling was tough... This is just ridicules. Much respect to you sir!
You have the hands of a surgeon Jay. Ten out of ten for perseverance. :-)
How calm you are, when you say the words "I am pissed off". Awesome patience! I know this kind of jobs from several machine-repairs in our workshop, there are only 10mm of space for turning a bolt or nut, and you think about taking a plasma cutter to "make some space" :)
Skipped through parts of the video, but laughed hysterically at many of the parts. I would never have the patience to do that. Kudos to you Jay for your persistence even amidst frustration. I guess there was no other way to design that engine to make it easier to lockwire. Makes you wonder if the engineers had maintenance in mind when they designed it.
First torque the screw. Then note the hole alignment then take the screw out. Now with the screw out start the lock wire and twist it close to your finished length. Now reinstall it again torquing it and then finish required twists and go through other screw and pig tail it. I used this trick on Huey’s
It's nice to see a suggested technique from someone who has actually done the job. Thanks!
I would actually like to try this. I find great relief in accomplishing a task I've once thought impossible. I may sound crazy.
When I was 20 I rebuilt my first car engine BMW S52 in my parents garage, with zero engine knowledge of engine assembly/dissassembly with a book at hand. It seemed impossible at the start. But 1 week of daily work and was amazing it fired up on the first crank. Still runs like a champ.
It's a helluvalot easier if you buy some extra long surgical needle holders, smooth or serrated, and they make them angled. Buy a used fiber optic endoscope or bores cope to find your holes. I used to sew in the back wall of an Aortic graft in a deeper hole. We used to close the abdomen with sterile surgical wire using the same type twister. Can't kink it or it'll fracture, intestines want to spill out then. Good video, be smooth with wire.
+112doc I think your work might be a step or two above mine. As cool as they might seem, turbine engines are fairly crude and simple compared to human bodies. I think even fighter pilots might be a bit stressed with the responsibilities of a surgeon.
Cheers!
+112doc what about a simple sharpie line across the bolt head to show the position of the holes
+AgentJayZ I was thinking the same thing as 112doc, and was going to suggest similar tools. Despite the "crudity" of what you are doing, I agree they would make life simpler.
Love your work, thank you.
+AgentJayZ It also occurred to me that a temporary cover plate over the bearing might help prevent contamination. Perhaps a plastic disk (or a bath plug) that fits into the bore, leaving the work area exposed. Just an idea, it may not be practical, and may even be UNdesirable. :)
@77 even us crappy mechanics would have covered the hole with a rag to stop any crap falling down it, im suprised an aircaft guy has crappier tools than i do for vintage motorcycles
Ha! great line and sooo true... "being pissed off and doing it for the second time" You always do it faster.
Thats pretty wicked man! I've been there done that. I use to lockwire my tail off on the old F-15 engines (F100-100). This one looks painful even with a single strand....good job!
19:37 is bolt Nr3 not wired backwards?
if you tension the wire it wants to loosen the bolt or has it to be more to be qualify as backwards?
or dose the wire stiffness itself hold the bolt in place?
loosening through vibration happens in very short time burst whit no load on the bolt an free float, but there shouldn't be any reverse torque on the bolt...
Yes. The wire is there mostly to retain any bolt that starts working its way out.It is not placing any torque on them.
Sir, you are a mad man! Excellent job on that wire!
I did the T-53 powershaft bolt lockwire and the shit around it when finishing off my trade test (Hot end inspection and dimension check after fault finding). God that took forever! The test had a time limit too, not a good few days that's for sure.
oly hard part about this is not contaminating the bearing. spend time in the military at low rank as a turbine engine mech and you will be doing every shit safety wire job there is. cant you safety wire blind, upside down and backwards with one hand? also a telescoping mirror will help you find those safety lock holes.
... You guys are awesome !
Obviously the engineer that designed that never actually had to put one together.
Reminds me of the rear bearing cover of the T-53. We're not allowed to do single stranded so I had to go double. Two sets of three and one set of two. Not the sort of holdup you want for a trade test and oh, you can fail on taking too long too. The horror.
You know, this looks like it might be a lot easier if you could get some fine-tip hemostats, about 18" long should do it, but anything longer than 10" should do. Hemostats are usually found as part of a surgeon's tools, but they are a real time-saver anywhere you find similar close-in spaces where you need to clamp and/or manipulate small parts. You know, small parts like lock-wire, in small places like the one showcased in this video.
I find that bergen cable works better for these tight spots.
I was really pissed off. Thought I should edit it out, but then I was making more of a reality video, so... WTF!
IGSO-480 super charger main shaft Seal retainer. six AN-10 fillister head screws, once drilled, double pass in a recessed mounting
"Lets give it a go." I will always remember this words!
Not Nerves of Steel... NERVES OF LOCKWIRE! Thats what i love about your work: The manual says ist, so it has to be done. No questions, just do it :) This separates the "do it yourselfer" from the real technician! Great Video!
we had the T58 in the CH-46's i worked on in the Marine Corps and that bird has some difficult safety wire jobs. But I gotta say DANG i'd hate to have to do that esp. since I have large hands. lol
Well Jay, gotta love jobs involving the three P's. Patience, Persistance, Pain.
Excellent work. US canoe club, we would use center punch to mark the head to tell where the hole was. Glad I am not the one doing the fine work JayZ is.
Jay you seem to have infinite patience! I hope having the camera along kept your heart-rate down. Thanks for the video.
16:02 is watched as much as the Kennedy Zapruder film. The metal flake zig-zagged just as much as the magic bullet.
Hmmm... Staggered seats in that limo. No magic.
This engine was destroyed shortly after its return to service by an unrelated incident.
AgentJayZ im curious why you didnt stuff a rag down the center hole? Not trying to armchair quarterback but figured you had a reason
(Edit) lol you answered this exact question in the next comment down, haha, nevermind!
hell of a work
steel nerves and truck of a will power!
impressed
Did you notice the tiny piece of plating the fell into the engine when you cut the wire at 16:04?
oh man, what a horrible job! but it's great to see the patience and perseverance that comes from wanting to do a job well done.
fantastic job and that is oil area safe-t cable not allowed too. you can take small tip long flatscrewdriver and do there a hole in , like a sweedle needle but you use take two of them and using for twisting only. Like that your hand extension. have fun :DDD
safety wire loves to work harden whenever you don't want it to
We have a machine where i work, that requires lockwire in a very difficult place, we use one of those inspection cameras made by Rigid, i'm sure there is other brands out there, it allows us to see the hole and makes really frustrating job tolerable. Good video
I watched the whole thing, drama and frustration to the max...Was retrained for aerospace assembly... never got a job at it, but I did enjoy lockwire... was curious about the size of lockwire you were using, I have used a couple sizes and understand the aircraft specs will often specify size and number of twists and so on... I now use lockwire recreationally ...
Stuff a rag in that hole, with a magnet on top, to catch any metal....... Can you mark the top of the bolt, with a marker.. Make your mark inline with the lock wire holes ???? If they don't line-up for you, take it out, and try another bolt.....Just a suggestion from an old Heavy Equipment Mechanic from Miramichi, New Brunswick... You have really great learning videos..... Jim...
The bolts , lockwire, washers, and bearing housing are all non-magnetic. But the marker idea is a good one.
just a thought you could mark the head of the bolts with a marker where the holes for the lockwire are. i wish you luck with it. you are a hard working man. keep it up.
I'm impressed, an oil country guy not swearing and throwing tools!! Way to go Jay! Or did you edit out the best part :-)
I thought turbine bearings had fully pressurized lubrication? Are you saying the rear bearing on this engine has lubricating oil simply squirted on it?!
They all are. That's what I call pressurized lubrication. All the bearings are ball or roller. No journal bearings like a piston engine.
Even those bearings are not "supported on pressurized oil". The oil pressure is there to make it flow to the bearing. When it gets there it is released, and the oil film is caused by the movement of the bearing.
Yes. Calm down and look into it, grasshopper...
Would a borescope help with finding the holes on those? I realize it would be one extra thing in the way. I mean, I know it's just a question of benefits versus drawbacks more or less. It just seems like it would be useful to me to have a camera down there where you could see the hole. I also realize that working on model aircraft isn't nearly as difficult as the real thing.
ExStatic Bass i think finding the hole position to start isn't actually the (more) hard part, just feeling around approx 90 degrees of the head. The tough part is getting the wire through it, and teh borescope would just get in the way then. My guess anyway
Wow, you sure have more patience than I. That would make me crazy.
12:30 What's love got to do with it (lock-wiring) by Tina Turner in the background isn't helping.
SsiolisP hmm wierd all i heard was machine noise ;-)
I can understand the need for lock wire in an aviation application, where a helicopter falling out of the sky would be a bad thing, but in a motorsport application, where I would assume that maintenance is far more frequent (such as racing catamarans that get their engines rebuilt often due to saltwater ingestion), are there times when an engine builder will omit certain process such as this to save time, knowing that the likelihood of screw backing itself out, is unlike before the next rebuild?
Jiminy criminy! That's brutally exacting work. Would use of a borescope make the threading part go easier? I like the idea of marking the tops of the bolts so you know the location of the lock-wire holes.
A chunk fell in the center at 16:02 ._.
+Discwhizkid s Shhhhhh!!!! you didn't see anything.
i saw it too
You guys are all way late to the party. Years late. read previous comments to find out why this is a (new) meaningless path to follow.
No it didnt. he held the end piece with pliers. The cut off piece was still secured with the pliers.
+MyMIXmedia
Yes, but a tiny fragment fell down!
Looks like you need some forceps/hemostats or something, you can get some pretty long forceps off of ebay or different sites. Jet surgery! Right now its like you are trying to suture with pliers.
at 16:02 to 16:05 a small piece of clipping fell into the center. does that matter?
you should've marked the bolt holes with a sharpie on order to see them. great patience
This video gives me anxiety.
Wow, this is tough to watch. You have patience, AgentJayZ. Would it be useful to mark the top of the bolts with a Sharpie or similar to show the lock wire hole location, before they are installed?
Funny, you're right. The battery died in the camera, and I kept assembling for the rest of the day. Just a ring of bolts locked with wire.
Next Ime !!
Always wonder if the torque spec of bolt is compromised with drilling holes ?
It was painful to watch you do this, it really isn't that hard. The secret is to have the piece of lock wire very, very long. Pull it completely through the first bolt and leave the surplus hanging out of the way as you feed it through the next one, once you have it through, pull it tight all the way through again so you have heaps and heaps of surplus again. Do this all the way around, at the end you should have a foot left over, doesn't matter, the wire is cheap. At the 19:29 mark, the bolt at the 1 o/clockish position near the "S/N" mark on the housing, is lock wired to undo. Wait until you have to do lock wires by feel, you can't actually see them, they are fun. If you have to do this often and it takes you this long, you may want to invest in the Bergen Cable system.
Is it possible to mark the head of the bolts with a. sharpie so you know where the hole is that you can’t see? Just a thought
Try the Number one bleed valve on a Bell 212 with the twin pac installed in the aircraft.
+Dale Martell That does sound more difficult. I'll leave that one to you guys!
My thoughts go to two items during this job.. ( I just love this type of fiddley stuff) FIrst why not have a few pairs of long straight medical hemostats to help turn the wire..? They are thinner, and more able to be turned axially during the "hole find" operation. Second, is there a reason why you cant pre-mark the wire hole direction on top of the bolts..? Fantastic stuff... your videos make me want to pursue more mechanical jobs... Thank you very much for filming this stuff for me !!
Thank you for your quick response. I though I was replying to Russ Linzmeier on his at-the-gate lockwire emergency. As is it I understand you replied to me as though I was commenting on your deeply challenging lockwire task. If I understand correctly the engine being worked on goes into a raceboat, and in that context I understand the thrill of completing a difficult task and (in my case) accident damage to my pickup and the joy of driving it again. No victory dinner needed!
I watched it all. Maybe you need a very petite assistant who could stick her hand all the way down in there and get a better grip on things-it seems like the main source of difficulty is just from having to work at a distance with pliers and tools (?). Or maybe you could use your camera to zoom in and watch on a monitor so that you'd have a better view of the work area. In any case, I admire your patience. I'm glad there are mechanics who will do whatever has to be done, no matter how difficult.
so you couldn't take three lock wire bolts one master bolt in the middle and lock wire it to the other two then bolt then tighten if you allow the loop to stay loose over the top?
Would a heavy set of long smooth jaw hemostats help.
A brain surgeon would have had this wrapped up in 8 minutes... but thanks for the comparison!