Today I made some more progress on baffling, deburring, dimpling, countersinking, step drilling and then riveting together parts. It’s been I while since I needed to use the compressor, but I needed to use the rivet gun in a few places. I almost always use the Main Squeeze hand-squeezer for rivets.
I decided to take a break from wiring, and start back on the engine. Cracking open the baffling section, I made some progress on the first few steps, marking and trimming the doublers, and deburring parts.
Today we trimmed the cutouts on the spinner. These allow the spinner to pass over the prop blades, and allow some space for the constant-speed prop blades to rotate.
Today was a major milestone day, we installed the prop! This was something I’d be holding off on, but with my parents here to help, it was a good opportunity to get it installed.
The first step is to remove the a cap which then allows oil to pass into the constant speed prop hub. There are different methods, but having never done this before I thought it was best not to drill anything, and instead try to remove it with a rod and hammer. Since I couldn’t bring myself to hammer away on the end of a very expensive engine, I let Dad do the job. His steady hand made this an easy task, although we were surprised at how much force it took to eventually pop it out.
The prop needs a couple of spinner plates mounted before it’s attached to the engine, so we followed the manual and Vans instructions to install these.
I also cleaned out the area behind the cap we removed to ensure the prop would mount cleanly.
Borrowing my neighbor’s engine hoist, and with a strap suspending the prop, we carefully hoisted, positioned and installed the prop. It only goes one way, and cannot be rotated at this time, so we had to carefully measure the clearance between the tip of the prop and the garage door, and other shelving. It fit with about 1 inch of clearance. I think I’ll find a way to put the plane into the garage nose first, which will solve the clearance issues, and maybe allow me to keep the canopy installed.
Everything went well today, and I’m stoked to have the prop on now. None of the prop bolts are final torqued, I’ll wait until I’m confident it won’t need to come off again before doing that.
Today Dad removed the original 4 governor studs and replaced with longer versions from Lycoming. The original studs didn’t have sufficient length for the two washers that are called out in the manual.
A stud removal tool, some copper paste, and a couple of nuts were needed to remove the old studs and install the new ones. Carefully measuring the depth of the original studs helped ensure the right placement of the new ones.
With the studs in, I reinstalled the governor and final torqued the nuts.
After being on backorder for several months the FWF Kit’s exhaust package arrived this week. The box was in rough shape, but luckily everything from the inventory was present.
I had a few extra unmarked parts which should be interesting to figure out.
Tonight I riveted the two pieces of the spinner mounting plate together. I was able to squeeze all of the rivets.
I then started back on the canopy. I have a few canopy jobs to complete; wiring, leather glare shield install, canopy fairing final sanding and painting, and then the guide pins.
I started with the canopy lock micro switch. When closed and locked, the micro switch is depressed, closing the circuit and sending a signal to the panel. In the event the canopy is not locked, a warning appears on the panel.
The wiring should have been easy, just check the switch, install two spade terminals, and it’s done. Unfortunately I the process I found that one of the wires is caught somewhere in the channel inside the canopy rail. Luckily the wire is still making a good connection, but I couldn’t feed the excess wire into the channel. I ended up shortening up the wire and messing around, but it worked out in the end. Anyway, the black wire is the one that is jammed somewhere.
Today I unboxed the propeller, which has been sitting in its original shipping box for about a year. I wanted to verify I had everything, and to see how it all fits together. I also decided not to install it right now, as my panel is coming soon, and I’ll be working on that next. Once I’m done with the panel, and all associated wiring, I’ll come back to the engine, prop, and the cowling.
I started working on the spinner mounting plate, which needs some match drilling and cutting to get the two pieces aligned. I managed to get all the shaping done, and to spray a coat of primer on it.
Today I installed the “red cube” (fuel flow transducer), various cushion clamps, the wiring for the starter, and the alternator.
The red cube was installed per the plans on top of the exhaust. Some people have reported issues with the heat effecting the transducer, relocating to the engine mount. I decided to stick with the vans plans and hope for the best.
There are many cushion clamps needed in the engine compartment, and I installed a bunch of them. Most of the clamps are arranged in a pair, where one clamps to the engine mount, and the other attaches to the wiring that needs supporting. They are joined together with a bolt. others mount to the engine itself, and these require removing a bolt or screw, and then reinstalling with the clamp in the washer stack. In two places on either side of the crank case, the bolts are too short to install the clamp, and I’ll need to buy some longer bolts. I’ve put a reminder on the engine so I can buy some later.
Then I moved onto the wiring for the starter, which was simply installing the wires into some of the clamps, connecting them to the starter motor, and installing some boots.
With that done I installed the alternator. This was fairly easy, but I couldn’t find my .041 stainless safety wire so I couldn’t finish the job. Everything is finger tight right now, and I’ll torque it down and safely wire once my shipment comes in.
Last night and tonight I worked on installing various engine fittings, and made the bracket for the fuel flow transducer bracket.
I had been exchanging emails with Vans over the fuel pump overflow fitting. The brass sleeve they sent me didn’t fit, so I ordered a nylon one from Aircraft Spruce and that worked nicely.
