We were taught the pre-taxying 'full rudder and count the clicks' technique and the option of setting 'min diff' brakes in flight if there was a crosswind was mentioned. But I don't recall ever having set the brakes anything other than fully OFF during the pre-landing checks.
The 'wired hot' thing was, if I recall correctly, something to do with the Avgas octane grade and cylinder head material used in later (?) years and was needed to reduce the CHT. But a few QFIs mentioned that the wire restraint was really quite flimsy....
