Safety First
By: Craig French
Keep your hands to yourself ... For life.
Despite the fact that I’m a two finger typist, it’s nice to know that I’ve still got eight fingers to spare - in case I ever learn to type properly. Some mechanics aren’t so lucky.
Finger injuries are all too common in all the mechanical trades. Injuries run the range from cuts, broken bones, paralyzed fingers, burns and limited mobility (often as a result of tendon injuries) – all the way up to amputation. I managed to get through 24 years in the trade relatively unscathed. Only one or two permanent scars adorn my digits. One scar from a chainsaw (no, the saw wasn’t running) on my right pointer finger is a reminder as to how easy it is to injure a finger.
When you think about it, it’s pretty amazing that mechanics don’t injure their hands more often. We basically work with our hands eight hours a day, five days a week. Over the years we perform tens of thousands of mechanical procedures with our hands. We work around moving parts, hot parts and sharp edges all the time. The odds are that sooner or later we’re going to end up with a sore pinky.
Most serious finger injuries in the powersport trade result from simply having a finger in the wrong place at the wrong time. Often these kinds of situations can be avoided by using common sense. Keep your hands away from moving parts, especially chains and sprockets. Sure, lubing the chain on a motorcycle by putting the bike on the center stand, starting the engine, putting the bike in gear and lubing the chain as it spins the rear wheel might sound like a time saving method of doing things – but is it really? It’s just as quick to simply spin the rear wheel by hand and lubricate the chain. Is the risk of loosing a finger in a sprocket worth trying to save a few seconds? Of course not.
Another area of concern is inside the engine. All sorts of nasty spinning parts live there. Have a look in a service manual. What’s one of the first things they tell you to do before servicing an engine? Disconnect the battery ground lead on electric start engines. Why? Because doing so eliminates any chance of the engine turning over by the starter motor while it’s being worked on (it also eliminates the chances of short circuits or damage to electronic control modules during routine service). The odds of a motorcycle or ATV engine accidentally turning over are quite rare. Manufacturers have lessened the odds of this occurring. Newer starter relay design has greatly reduced the chance of accidentally shorting out the starter relay secondary posts (the two larger posts on the top of the relay) – one of the only ways a starter motor can be directly activated while bypassing the ignition key and starter button.
But what about other power products? Lawnmowers can be started by spinning the blade. Snowmobiles can be started by spinning the primary clutch by hand. A small outboard might be accidentally started by turning the prop over by hand while the transmission is in gear. These are all potential disasters. How can a mechanic reduce the odds of serious hand injuries in these situations? Simple. Disable the ignition system before working on the machine. I personally prefer to disconnect the ignition coil primary wires in these cases. Or, if the coil is buried away in an inaccessible location, I disconnect and remove the spark plug before I work on the machine. Problem solved.
Another technique for avoiding hand and finger disasters in the shop is to use a chisel holder when smacking chisels, punches and drifts with a hammer. The holder eliminates the risk of smashing your hand with the hammer. Just ask my recent third year apprentices about my valve guide removal demonstration – without a holder. “Yes students, I really should be using a holder on this drift.” You guessed it. On the third swing of the hammer I pegged my thumb good. Real good! The resulting scar under my thumb nail has just recently grown out. My demo on how not to use a hammer and drift is now legend.
There are all sorts of ways to damage fingers. The list is pretty much limited by your imagination. Here’s one of my favorites: an older snowmobile, drive belt removed, spark plugs still connected, ignition switch left on. The carburetors were removed from the engine, so there’s no way this machine would accidentally start – right? Wrong! The mechanic was inspecting the primary clutch and turned it over by hand to have a look at one of the clutch weights. Believe it or not, when he turned the clutch over the engine fired up and revved to the moon for a few seconds, then spun to a halt. The mechanic was very fortunate. His hands were spared. We were all stunned for a moment. How could this have happened?
There was just enough fuel puddled up in the inlet tract to start the engine. When the mechanic turned the engine over with the clutch there must have been a near perfect 14.7:1 mixture of air/fuel in the crankcase. The engine fired up, despite the fact that the carbs were removed from the engine. Fortunately the drive belt was off the clutches, or the sled would have rocketed across the shop.
The mechanic learned a valuable lesson about disabling ignition systems when working on machinery. To this day I shiver when I think of what might have happened to him if his fingers had been snagged by the clutch. His typing career would have been over.
Despite the fact that I’m a two finger typist, it’s nice to know that I’ve still got eight fingers to spare - in case I ever learn to type properly. Some mechanics aren’t so lucky.
Finger injuries are all too common in all the mechanical trades. Injuries run the range from cuts, broken bones, paralyzed fingers, burns and limited mobility (often as a result of tendon injuries) – all the way up to amputation. I managed to get through 24 years in the trade relatively unscathed. Only one or two permanent scars adorn my digits. One scar from a chainsaw (no, the saw wasn’t running) on my right pointer finger is a reminder as to how easy it is to injure a finger.
When you think about it, it’s pretty amazing that mechanics don’t injure their hands more often. We basically work with our hands eight hours a day, five days a week. Over the years we perform tens of thousands of mechanical procedures with our hands. We work around moving parts, hot parts and sharp edges all the time. The odds are that sooner or later we’re going to end up with a sore pinky.
Most serious finger injuries in the powersport trade result from simply having a finger in the wrong place at the wrong time. Often these kinds of situations can be avoided by using common sense. Keep your hands away from moving parts, especially chains and sprockets. Sure, lubing the chain on a motorcycle by putting the bike on the center stand, starting the engine, putting the bike in gear and lubing the chain as it spins the rear wheel might sound like a time saving method of doing things – but is it really? It’s just as quick to simply spin the rear wheel by hand and lubricate the chain. Is the risk of loosing a finger in a sprocket worth trying to save a few seconds? Of course not.
Another area of concern is inside the engine. All sorts of nasty spinning parts live there. Have a look in a service manual. What’s one of the first things they tell you to do before servicing an engine? Disconnect the battery ground lead on electric start engines. Why? Because doing so eliminates any chance of the engine turning over by the starter motor while it’s being worked on (it also eliminates the chances of short circuits or damage to electronic control modules during routine service). The odds of a motorcycle or ATV engine accidentally turning over are quite rare. Manufacturers have lessened the odds of this occurring. Newer starter relay design has greatly reduced the chance of accidentally shorting out the starter relay secondary posts (the two larger posts on the top of the relay) – one of the only ways a starter motor can be directly activated while bypassing the ignition key and starter button.
But what about other power products? Lawnmowers can be started by spinning the blade. Snowmobiles can be started by spinning the primary clutch by hand. A small outboard might be accidentally started by turning the prop over by hand while the transmission is in gear. These are all potential disasters. How can a mechanic reduce the odds of serious hand injuries in these situations? Simple. Disable the ignition system before working on the machine. I personally prefer to disconnect the ignition coil primary wires in these cases. Or, if the coil is buried away in an inaccessible location, I disconnect and remove the spark plug before I work on the machine. Problem solved.
Another technique for avoiding hand and finger disasters in the shop is to use a chisel holder when smacking chisels, punches and drifts with a hammer. The holder eliminates the risk of smashing your hand with the hammer. Just ask my recent third year apprentices about my valve guide removal demonstration – without a holder. “Yes students, I really should be using a holder on this drift.” You guessed it. On the third swing of the hammer I pegged my thumb good. Real good! The resulting scar under my thumb nail has just recently grown out. My demo on how not to use a hammer and drift is now legend.
There are all sorts of ways to damage fingers. The list is pretty much limited by your imagination. Here’s one of my favorites: an older snowmobile, drive belt removed, spark plugs still connected, ignition switch left on. The carburetors were removed from the engine, so there’s no way this machine would accidentally start – right? Wrong! The mechanic was inspecting the primary clutch and turned it over by hand to have a look at one of the clutch weights. Believe it or not, when he turned the clutch over the engine fired up and revved to the moon for a few seconds, then spun to a halt. The mechanic was very fortunate. His hands were spared. We were all stunned for a moment. How could this have happened?
There was just enough fuel puddled up in the inlet tract to start the engine. When the mechanic turned the engine over with the clutch there must have been a near perfect 14.7:1 mixture of air/fuel in the crankcase. The engine fired up, despite the fact that the carbs were removed from the engine. Fortunately the drive belt was off the clutches, or the sled would have rocketed across the shop.
The mechanic learned a valuable lesson about disabling ignition systems when working on machinery. To this day I shiver when I think of what might have happened to him if his fingers had been snagged by the clutch. His typing career would have been over.
