Maintenance Article #2: How To Drill For Safety Wire

Joe Denowh is not only a certified motorcycle mechanic who’s been riding and wrenching for his entire life, he’s also a Midwest regional club racing middleweight champion, and the Chief Service Technician for Turn One Racing. In this ongoing series of articles Joe will explain the right, and sometimes the wrong, way of how to maintain and modify your high performance motorcycle.

Step 1: Gather your tools. Basically all you need is a drill, some safety wire pliers and safety wire, and some 1/16” drill bits.

Make sure to have plenty of drill bits on hand, even though a steady hand and some WD-40 will minimize the chance of breaking a bit, they are still easy to snap.

Step 2: Mark the bolt. In order for the holes to be in the right place, you want to make sure the bolt is properly torqued and marked.

It’s important to understand the concept of safety wiring when marking the bolt. Basically, the bolt turns clockwise to tighten, “Righty tighty, lefty loosy” so you want to mark and drill the bolt in a spot where the wire will pull it tight, not pull it loose.

Some people will just drill holes with no regard for where they are, which might work some of the time, but the concept is to have holes that allow the wire to keep the bolt from loosening on its own, so make sure the hole you drill allows you to run wire that will hold the bolt tight, not pull back at it in the other direction.

Step 3: Drill the bolt. The easiest way to do this is with a drill press and a jig, but not everybody has access to those tools, and a good vice and good technique is all you really need.

Notice how the threads of the bolt are not being crushed in the vice jaws, this is important. If the bolt has too many threads to grab without crushing them, clamp it between two small pieces of wood and squeeze it tightly so it won’t move while you drill. In this case, the bolt is long enough the threads are clear of the vice jaws.

A little cutting oil goes a long way toward making your job easier, and not breaking drill bits. WD-40 works as a substitute if you don’t have any cutting oil.

Once the bolt is secure, and you get the hole started in the middle of the side you marked, use a little cutting oil on the end of your bit or in the hole as you go to keep the bit cool and facilitate the whole process.

Once you get the hole started, keep the bit level and steadily apply pressure as you drill your way across the bolt head. Remember to add a little cutting oil, and don’t lean in any direction or the bit will snap. It won’t take long to drill all the way through the bolt.

Now you’re ready to clean it up and reinstall.

Step 4: Torque set the bolt and wire it in. Now that you’ve drilled the bolt, clean it up and torque it back in place. With the hole properly positioned, you can now thread some safety wire through it and lock it down.

How much safety wire you need is to reach wherever you decide to tie the bolt off to is easy to estimate. Just thread the wire through the bolt hole, then pull enough wire through to double over from the bolt to where you want tie it off, then cut the wire, bend it at the bolt, and pull it straight so you can grab it with the safety wire pliers.

Now that you have the right amount of wire threaded through the bolt and in your hand, grab it with the pliers, lock it in with the locking mechanism of the safety wire pliers, and pull it taught with the twist knob in between the plier arms by pulling the knob away from the bolt while letting the pliers spin freely.

Take the tightly wound safety wire and run it to the next bolt or lock off point of choice.

Now thread one of the wires through the second hole and pull it taught. Grab both ends with the pliers, engage the locking mechanism, and pull the twist knob again allowing the pliers to spin freely.

With a twisted length of safety wire now joining two bolts, trim the excess wire and admire your work. If it’s done properly, it will look taught, uniform, and connect at the leading edge of any bolt.

Tune in again for another article on motorcycle maintenance, modification, and repair, because Joe Knows How To get the most out of your motorcycle experience.