Dave’s RV-7A Building Log

I didn’t spend too much time on the plane today. Yesterday was a big day.

I returned the hoist, cleaned up the garage, and re-arranged a bit. I did work on the engine bolt torque a bit. The left top bolt is the tough one. A push rod tube is in the way. On all the others, I can use a box wrench quite easily. The bottom bolts look great. On the top bolts, I’m not quite happy with how the cotter pin hole is situated in the slot of the nut. I might add another washer, as the instructions suggest.

I called up the rental place this morning and they are going to be closed starting at noon tomorrow until Monday. I didn’t want to rent the hoist for 2 days, and didn’t want to wait until Monday. I guess today is the day. I swung by and picked up the hoist. It is an ugly beast–about 3X larger than it needs to be. I assembled it fairly easily, but took a while figuring out how to rig something on the end of it to lift the engine. With that done, I discovered the thing wouldn’t fit around the pallet that the engine was sitting on. Time to pull out the Sawzall. A few quick cuts and the hoist was in position.

Getting the engine unbolted from the pallet was a bit of a hassle. Once I figured out that the nuts on the bottom mounts were 11/16″, things went much quicker. It took quite a bit of jockeying to get the hoist into position, especially since one wheel on the darn thing would not pivot. I was planning on just pushing the plane into the driveway, but it rained all afternoon. Julie helped keep the engine steady while I wheeled and lifted it into place. I had to remove the oil filter since it’s on an adapter, but I expected that. The prop governor was not in the way at all. I’m very glad I mounted that while the back of the engine was more accessible.

I followed the guide in the 24 years of the RVator. The first and second bolts went in very easily.

The third bolt was a bit more of a challenge.

The fourth bolt looked impossible. I took a break for dinner. After re-reading the guide, I loosened two of the previous bolts and was able to apply just the right leverage on the rubber mount with a large screwdriver and some wood blocks. The bolt slipped right into place!

This is quite an inspiring step. If I wasn’t so beat, I would pull out the exhaust, fuel lines, baffles, and cowls and start going to town.

My back was a bit sore from leaning into the baggage compartment from yesterday, so I did something else. I prepped the aft top skin for riveting. Julie’s Christmas gift was delivered, so I figured I might get some riveting help.

I placed rivets in the open holes of the top aft skin and taped them down. I also messed around with making some clips for the static tubing. The plans have you use some .025 x 5/8 x 1-3/4″ material. One of my Philips screwdrivers has a 1/4″ shaft, so I bent the tabs around that and used a block of wood and a vise to complete the bend. It took about 3 tries before I got the process figured out.

I then decided that I might as well get the baggage floor done. The second floor panel went much quicker. I also put some UHMW tape under the ELT mount where it looks like it might rub the bottom skin.

I installed the thumb screws from McMaster and they work great. It will take a while before they are turnable by hand, but a coin also fits in the slot. This will make the ELT accessible in the unlikely event of an off-airport landing.

I riveted in the baggage compartment side panels and riveted down the left side baggage floor. It’s not an easy task to lean in over the side and deal with nut plates, flush rivets, and pop rivets. The results look great, though. The compartment for the strobe power supply works exactly as planned. I re-installed the power supply and secured the compartment cover.

Warning! This pop riveter is a piece of dung. The top handle has been loose for a while, and I didn’t do anything about it. Well, the darn thing (trying not to swear to keep it family-friendly) slipped out of the handle and put a nice dent in the bottom skin behind the baggage bulkhead. I’m hoping that some tricky massaging with the rivet gun will mostly fix it. At least the dent is on the bottom of the plane.

I riveted in the bottom cowl hinge and riveted the firewall to the bottom skin in between the two sections of hinge. As best I could, I jammed some high-temp RTV between the firewall and bottom skin.

I also used some RTV under the engine mount points and re-installed the mount and nose wheel assembly and re-torqued the bolts.

I think I’m offically ready for hanging the engine. Now I just need to rent a hoist and find an extra hand or two.

I haven’t done much on the project over the last couple of days. I pulled out the cowls and hinges and figured out how the bottom hinges attach. It looks like there is 11″ on each side that rivet to the firewall. I’m going to take care of that before I mount the eninge. I cut the hinges to length and cleaned them up.

There was a nice window in the rain showers for painting. I re-painted the baggage floors and compartment doors, and painted the seat floors.

I found some advice in Van’s FAQ on mounting the cowls. It contradicts the instructions, which say to install the exhaust first. The FAQ is very helpful for figuring out what to do with the various hinge and hinge pin material. I think I have it figured out now.

I messed around with the DB-9 connectors quite a bit, trying to figure out how best to use them for wiring up all the trim stuff, servos, relays, stick switches, panel indicators, etc. The connectors are much bigger than needed for the job. I finally decided to give up on them and try some other connectors someone pointed out on Digikey. I’ll order them next week.

The weather has been quite warm (mid-50’s) with rain showers. I figured there might be a window tomorrow for painting. I sanded the baggage floors to knock down the crud that blew into the paint during the last session. I also prepped the seat floors.

I also pulled out the cowl instructions and plans. It is one of the most complicated plan sheets. I tried to figure out the arrangement of the hinges. I’ve read that the bottom hinges are difficult to rivet with the engine mount in the way. I might remove the engine mount and try cutting and installing the hinges before mounting the engine.

About half of my free time during the day is spent thinking about the project. I’m sure this is a common disease among builders. I was thinking during the day about how I installed the ELT antenna wire, and realized that it would interfere with the flap actuator tube. I fixed that and interference with the rudder cable by putting in another wire clamp.

I also removed the pilot stick, took off the grip, and trimmed another 5/8″ off the top. Eventhough when the control surfaces are hooked up the stick won’t get near the panel, it still seems better to have it not hit. Plus the stick just seemed way too high. I re-assembling everything took quite a while. I tried the dental floss trick for inserting the washers, which worked pretty well. It’s still darn difficult to reach over the side of the fuselage, hold the stick steady and the cross bar from the other stick and line up two washers and get the bolt in.

I have a task list I’m working through. I’ve almost got everything crossed off. It’s about time to get that engine mounted, so I’ll have something else to work on, cowl, baffles, engine plumbing, etc.

I finished up securing the antenna wire for the ELT. I used some of the rubber edge grommet material from McMaster where the wire crosses a bulkhead flange. I cut the wire to size and installed a new BNC connector.

I next decided to finally install the ground block with all of the tab connectors. I’m not sure why I’ve been waiting so long for this step. I mounted it above the battery on the part of the firewall that slopes forward a little bit. It’ll be fairly close to the fuse blocks, so hopefully that keeps most of the wiring in that one area. I used an AN3 bolt for one side and AN4 for the other. That should give me enough options for hooking up the engine block ground, battery ground, and any other ring terminal grounds.

Matthew suggested putting some tape over the wheel pant brackets to keep from snagging them. Turns out an Amazon box fits over it perfectly with a slot cut out. This should keep me from stepping on and snagging the brackets.