I figured I might as well finish up the tubing. Or at least as much as I can do without mounting the wings. I pulled out some 1/4″ aluminum tubing and snaked it through the gear mount. The tough part was flaring the end by the gear mount. After that it was just a matter of bending it into place with the spring bender.
After several iterations, I finally got the left gear mount installed. I tried to slip a washer behind the gear mount for the lower outer bolt and of course lost it. I had to remove all of the bolts in order to fish out the washer. I also tried some -12 bolts in the lower inside holes, but they really are too short. The -13 bolts looked too long as well, so I added an extra washer under the nut. That worked out perfectly. Access to the lower bolts is definitely challenging, especially while leaning over the side of the plane. Eventually, I got all of the bolts installed and torqued.
Of course the right side was much easier. It took probably 1/4 as long since I already had everything figured out. It’s very cool to have these things installed finally.
The finish kit made it in one piece. I love getting big boxes from Vans. It will be a few weeks before I’m ready to dive into these parts, but I had to take a peek inside.
I drilled holes in the firewall for the brake reservoir. It’s difficult to judge the location of the outlet hole, so I made a cardboard template to mark the holes. It turned out darn near perfect. I’m going to wait to do the final attachment until I have some ProSeal handy.
After dinner I remembered that I can now do the final installation of the gear mounts. I started with the left gear mount. Since others have said the -12 bolts weren’t long enough, I started with -13 bolts. There seemed to be plenty of them. As it turns out, the bolts seemed a little long for the two lower, inboard bolts. There’s one less layer of metal at that location. I don’t want the nut to bottom out on the grip, so I might swap those out for -12s.
I also had a heck of a time getting all of the holes to line up. I’m not sure why. The mount just didn’t seem to be cooperating. After a few iterations, I finally got all of the bolts in. I used a telescoping magnet to install the washers and a wrench duct taped to a thin piece of wood to install the nuts. That went pretty easy. After snugging down the nuts a little, something didn’t look right. The mount was not sitting flush against the spar web. Then I remembered that one bolt needs a washer between the gear mount and spar. Dang. That’s where I decided to take a break for the night.
Despite the hassles, it feels mighty good to be installing things (I hope) permanently.
I finished installing the final hardware on the brake pedals. I tried tightening the nuts different amounts to find a good balance between having the pedals not wobbly and still moving freely. Generally, I tightened the nut with a wrench until it first met resistance and then backed it off one flat (1/6 of a turn), and then backed it off a little more if needed to fit the cotter pin.
I also put the brass elbows in the master cylinders with some thread sealing goop.
I worked a little bit on bending, cutting, and flaring the fuel tubing where it attaches to the fuel selector. This was not as easy as I thought it was going to be, but I got it worked out. Also, here are some additional pictures of the fuel tubing.
The next task would seem to be the brake lines, so I pulled out the rudder pedal assembly. I started installing the brake pedals and master cylinders with the proper washers and castle nuts. I can’t quite figure out how tight to make the nuts. There’s a fine line between too loose, making the brake pedal loose, and too tight where the pedals don’t move freely.
Passed 1,000 hours on the project today! It’s hard to believe I’ve spent so much time on this crazy project.
There’s some expression about standing on the shoulders of giants. Well, I carefully read the tips on Matthew’s building log for installing the fuel tubing through the gear mounts, and followed them almost exactly. The only change I made was to cut the tubing 38″ long and start the first bend 8″ from the end, in case there were some minor differences in the tank location for the -7 vs. the -9. (I won’t know for sure until the wings are mounted, but the original dimensions probably would have been fine.) It worked out perfect. Following his directions, this task was not difficult. I was able to get the tubing for both sides in place on the first try. Well, almost the first try. On the left side, I had the cover bracket on wrong and had to pull the tubing out to re-orient it. It was still simple compared to the stories I’ve read about on the lists.
The first picture shows the first step of inserting the tubing with the gear mount and cover loose (although the cover is oriented wrong). The next two pictures show the tubing in it’s final place. I just need to bend and flare the ends at the fuel selector.
I decided to work on the static ports. I carefully located the point specified on drawing 28. However, the static ports from SafeAir have a large flange on them. I ended up moving the static port location forward a little bit. I used a distance of 1″ from the F-708 rivet line to the static port. That worked out perfect. I drilled the holes to 1/4″ in steps.
The SafeAir ports are cool in that you can choose to use 2, 3, 4, or 6 rivets for each port. In order to keep the area forward of the ports clean, I used 4 rivets on each port and oriented them such that 2 were above and 2 below. Rather than dimple the skins and countersink the ports for 426AD3 rivets, I used NAS1097A03 rivets. These rivets have a small enough head that I was able to just countersink the skins with the deburrer. They’re not structural rivets, but they’re certainly strong enough for the static ports, especially since I also used a thin layer of RTV to seal them to the skins.
With the ports riveted on, I pulled out the tubing and fittings. I bought a few Nylo-seal fittings from Spruce that made a nice transition from the IP threads of the ports into the plastic tubing from Van’s static port kit. I cut the tubing to size and screws everything together. I’m not sure how tight to make the plastic nuts. For now, they’re just finger tight. That should do it for the static system until I get a few more things in the cabin finished. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the ports look really slick.
I also assembled the fuel selector. The handle really is ugly looking. Somebody should machine a nicer looking handle. The valve itself seems to work fine.
Finished bending and installing the left fuel vent tubing.
My order from Master-Carr also arrived. I ordered the famous $9 drill bushing for the elevator bearing. It’s 1/4″ OD by #40 ID. For some reason, it doesn’t want to fit inside the elevator bearing. I might have to chuck it in the drill press and sand it down a tiny bit. I also bought a couple of #40 angle drill bits to replace the one I broke.
I finished shaping the left fuel vent line. It’s looking pretty good.
I cut the right fuel vent line to its final length and flared the end. It was a little difficult to get the line attached to the fitting in the side skin without having the tubing hit the aux longeron, but I finally got it. There’s no location specified for the clamp on the top firewall gusset. I just picked a good spot and drilled. With the line attached at both ends and torqued, I clamped the tube in position. I tweaked the position a tiny bit to get it right where I wanted it. The tube looks great and is very solid. I’m glad that’s finished, but I have a lot more tubing to bend.
