- attached a bunch of steel fittings to the engine; torqued nuts and attached more wires to the starter solenoid
- primed and attached manifold pressure sensor bracket; separated, deburred and riveted prop governor bracket assembly
- powder-coated steps (H&R Powder Coating in Orlando)
- figuring out how to install B&C backup alternator (i.e., hard-to-reach nuts), as well as the electrical connections to the e-mag - VERY tight quarters for both
- installed B&C backup alternator (torqued 3 nuts at 108 in-lb); what a pain in the ass 4th nut - need another tool to properly torque that nut; EDIT - got proper vacuum pump crow’s foot and wobble extension and it was easy to torque that 4th nut
- drilled #30, and cut spinner plate assembly with pneumatic nibbler and pneumatic belt sander
- riveted spinner back plate and doubler, and deburred edges; removed cutout sections of spinner;
marked scribe lines; started trimming cowl at the spinner and air-intake areas
- trimmed to scribe lines for all areas except the aft lateral lines on the bottom cowl; test-fit to determine interference in the front section (will need to trim a little more)
Finished installing the remaining wires to the master relay and starter solenoid. After reviewing Ken B.'s and Turner B.'s installations of their alternator fuses and G3X shunt, a couple of these nuts will need to come off to accommodate the starter switch wire and main power switch wire. I'll deal with that once I receive the panel.
Installed and safety-wired the expensive but necessary aluminum tach cap:
Installed inlet and outlet ports to the engine fuel pump, as well as the drain tube:
Installed steel lower AN oil fitting (upper fitting is on back-order):
Installed ground strap to engine, making sure to remove paint on the engine to ensure good metal-to-metal contact (will attach other end to engine mount, once mounted):
Installed manifold pressure fitting (steel):
Installed prop governor and clocked the arm to the correct position:
Installed 1/8" steel plug, scavenged from an engine port, into the fuel spider:
Since I will be doing my own oil changes, I wanted to relocate the oil filter to an accessible position on the left firewall. Here are parts for the Airwolf remote oil filter assembly.
Before I install the engine to the fuselage, this is the only part that I can install - the converter assembly that replaces the old oil filter. Two 10-to-8 reduction AN fittings will attach to hoses that will lead to the filter, placed on the left lower firewall:
The steel steps that come with the tri-gear finish kit are very susceptible to rusting; painting will protect it for a while, but you're stepping on this part, and paint is just not durable enough for long-term use. Enter powder coating - It took some time to find a local powder coating company that would do small jobs, but H&R Powder Coating in Orlando agreed and the turnaround was less than 5 days! Since the steps below are going to see a lot of wear-and-tear, they suggested a triple coating process to increase durability. I really like how they came out - the gloss black color will go well with the paint scheme that I am designing (well, Plane Schemers is designing it; I'm just guiding the process). BTW, having a pro design your paint scheme is WELL worth the money - there is no way I would have envisioned the scheme we are designing. Ken B. and the other folks in the "Gang of 5" (you know who you are), I'll text you a preview in a couple weeks. For the rest, you'll have to wait to see the scheme on the plane, hopefully Q4 2021.
Installed the B&C backup alternator. 3 of the 4 nuts could be torqued to spec using a 3/8" drive crow's foot (7/16"), but one little nut is in the most impossible place to torque (108 in-lb).
Here is that little fucker of a nut (red arrow). Not an easy location, eh?! Normally, this is the vacuum pad, and there are dedicated wrenches for these nuts ... from reading the VAF forum, those wrenches don't have the correct geometry.
Tools that I used originally are shown below. The elbow-jointed socked was good enough to get the 4th nut snug, but not fully torqued.
Instead, I took the advice from a VAF forum member (Walt A., I believe) who suggested a combination of a special 1/4" drive vacuum pump crow's foot, with a 6" wobble extension (allows about a 20deg bend, to get around the body of the alternator). And, it worked perfectly! I can't imagine trying to do this with the engine on - there is exactly one place that you can torque, and having the "12 point" (30deg working arc) crow's foot was essential, since a standard 6 point (60deg working arc) one would not work. While this is a great example of having the right tool for the right job, I laugh at the fact that I spent $88 at Snap-On tools to turn one nut about a quarter turn in order to torque it to 108 in-lb.
Used a pneumatic nibbler to rough-trim the spinner back plate:
Used a pneumatic belt sander to final-trim the plate:
Deburred plate:
Match-drilled #30 the doubler into the plate:
Riveted doubler to spinner back plate. Front spinner plate is shown here as well (deburred):
Used a hacksaw and #30 drill to cut out spinner areas where the prop will penetrate (save the cutouts!):
Rough cut:
Sanded to near-final dimension. The spinner will need to be placed on the prop to check for interference and then the spinner will be final-trimmed:
Trimmed upper cowl oil door. Because the factory touched up a few areas on the cowl, the scribe lines were obliterated in those areas, including the oil door area. The lines I drew approximate the dimensions that will be needed to install the cam locs later. All trimming of the cowl was first started with a rough cut from a die grinder, a fine cutoff wheel with a dremel tool if needed (e.g. corners, edges), followed by rough sanding using a pneumatic belt sander, and final-sanding using a long (foot-long) sanding block to ensure straight edges. Thanks, Ken B., for recommending the Perma-grit block - it came in very handy, esp. for the long straight parts of the cowls!
Trimmed lower cowl to scribe lines in the forward section, esp. near the spinner hole and air vent holes:
Trimmed upper cowl in a similar fashion:
Trimmed lower cowl to scribe line that accommodates the nose gear:
Again, because areas were touched up by the factory, certain scribe lines were not apparent. Here, you can see the outboard edge of the upper cowl's left vent opening will need to be angled to meet the outboard edge of the lower cowl. I didn't trim it yet, because at this point I wanted to double check a few build sites to ensure that yes, these two sections should meet together nicely, instead of this awful-looking overhang I have here. Next update will have this part trimmed:
Trimmed aft parts of both cowls to the scribe line. All of these scribe lines are supposedly very accurate, but final trimming (probably just sanding) is still going to have to wait until I get the engine mounted and the prop and spinner back plate installed. I'll note that the top cowl's aft scribe line was actually 2 lines spaced very close together (and not always evenly throughout the aft part). I decided to sand through the first but not into the second line. I figure I can sand more later, if necessary. From what I read, the top cowl will barely fit as-is, and will need some fine-tuning once the engine/prop/spinner-back are installed.
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