UKC

Had some time to kill this morning so decided to have a good look at the state of my wires; rather surprisingly I found 3 micro wires (brass off sets) which close inspection, by bending the head in a number of directions, proved to have snapped wires at the head and so significantly weakened and needing replacement....which I have already done . This was not easy to see and so I wonder how many of us are climbing unsuspectingly on damaged wires? Just a heads up in case you too have 10 minutes of time to kill usefully. Perhaps it's just my shit eyesight.

In reply to tmawer:
Good call! I regularly slide the 'nut' down wires to check for any hidden damage. 10 minutes well spent.

In reply to brianjcooper:

If you can do that on brass micros then it's definitely time to replace

In reply to tmawer:

I buggered (I thought) a WC rock at the weekend trying to get it out. Tugging the wire from the top to free it, the clip in loop became tiny as the wire pulled through the swage. They all appear to do that though so I pulled it back through. Having never seen a wire with its plastic cover removed, I'm assuming they are made as a closed single loop, with the heatshrink/plastic forming the clip in loop? Or does the swage feature a 'tunnel' for the loose side?
More to the point, how can we inspect the swage end if it's all covered in plastic.

In reply to tmawer:

I've found the same thing a lot before. I inspect the brassies regularly for this and they do need replaced more often than normal nuts (particularly the offset ones) but I guess this is the price you pay for them being such great pro to place in anger.

In reply to henwardian:

I recently cut the plastic cover open covering the swage bit on a wild country Rock on wire, that is around 30 yrs old, to do a basic visual inspection on.
All looks good, no sign of corrosion,... I was worried as for the last 10 yrs they have been stored in a container unit, where temps fluctuate wildly, but especially in winter condensation forms on metal in storage containers.
I have only checked one, and that's not going to prove they are all going to be in safe condition, and the only way to know would be to destroy them with testing.
I have a new set, but I'm still using the old ones.
Has anyone found corrosion on wires before?
Is anyone else using 30 yr old wires that may have been subjected to condensation / damp winter storage?

In reply to AlanLittle:

Fairly obvious you can't do that with them.

In reply to tmawer:

Always worth inspecting your nuts before you fall on them.

In reply to Dell:


Yes


Best to leave as is, the biggest stress will be under the nut unless you bash it in winter, in which case the top wires go.

In reply to Dell:



In my experience the Swage makes a loop by attaching the 2 ends of the wire. The plastic simply holds into a convenient loop to clip