I always swore by safety wire pliers until I tried the cross-torque trick on a 737

I had a stubborn bolt on a flap track that kept loosening up on a 2017 737 at work in Atlanta. My go-to was always just crank it tighter with safety wire pliers, but a senior mechanic showed me how to use a torque wrench to cross-torque the nut to 160 inch-pounds before safing it. Been 3 months now and no issues, that thing is locked solid. Anyone else ever skip the torque spec on smaller hardware?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_wendy1mo ago

And here I was thinking safety wire pliers were some kind of magical cure-all. Turns out I've just been brute forcing my way through problems for years. That cross torque trick makes total sense when you think about it. I bet my old approach was just creating a headache for the next guy who had to touch that bolt. Now I feel like I need to go apologize to every 737 I've ever worked on. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

sage_green1mo ago

Man that's a solid tip right there

wadew511mo ago

Heard a podcast where they broke down why that actually works way better than the usual methods.