Monday, May 30, 2011 Memorial Day at the Airport

A day off work and an opportunity to go to the airport. We experienced a heavy lightning storm last night and this morning we had heavy rain squalls. So glad to be indoors. The goal today was to work on the engine and engine components.

First, I worked on getting the muffler re-attached. That didn’t take too long, except that the attachment to the engine could not be completed since this is accomplished by two springs which keep the muffler in line with the engine manifold. These springs were too worn to re-use, so I brought one of them home so I could find replacements.

Last visit I had attached the seat belt and shoulder harness but was slightly confused how they hooked together. Today it was very apparent and I actually sat in the seat with the shoulder harness and seat belt attached, but saw that the shoulder harness attach points were too far apart to be usable, so will have to move them further inboard, a project for another time.

I attached the carburetor and traced the path of the fuel line to see how the tubing should be connected. It seemed pretty clear how to run the fuel line which had been chopped up by the overzealous jaws-of-life operator at the accident scene. In addition to the main line, there are three mysterious small tubes coming out of the carburetor that I can’t figure out, so will have to check them out.

The throttle cable will be a little more of a challenge to get reinstalled. The cable that runs to the hand control is intact, but the split cable that runs to the foot control was cut and will take some research. The foot control is part of the nosewheel assembly that was broken in the accident and re-welded, so it will be somewhat challenging to figure out how to get the throttle cable hooked up. Worse case I could get the engine running with the hand control only for now.

Finally, I got frustrated with the tangled web of electrical wires that had been apparently jury-rigged over time as components were added and taken off, so I disconnected most of the wires that I could see had nothing to do with the actual engine electrical system. I will add some of them back later, but for now I just want the wiring to support the engine function only. I do want to add at some point a kill switch, ignition and starter switch, and some engine instrumentation, such as tachometer, dual CHT, EGT, and hour meter. But for now, the engine wires are dangling down ready to be attached. The project for the next visit is clear; connecting the wiring and fuel line, charging the battery, and getting closer to starting the engine.

For today, I’m pleased with what was accomplished, mostly research into what should be done next.

Saturday, May 21, 2011 Next Available Work Day

We had a beautiful week, warm almost-70’s weather, but not today. The weather service predicted a major storm which included heavy rain, thunder and lightning, and “damaging hail”, and those who like these kind of storms were not disappointed. There even was a warning of possible tornados. Thankfully the hanger makes it comfortable to work in an indoors environment.

My goal for today was to try to again attach the engine tubes to the uprights. With the weight of the engine and the close tolerances I have not been able to get the bolts completely through the tubes and their mounting brackets. And today I also was unable to get these bolts lined up on both sides. I took the car jack and lug wrench out of the car to help as a pry bar, so hopefully we won’t have a flat tire for the next week or so until I get this situation resolved. It appears to be a two-person job, so I’ll ask John to try to help me maybe next week.

The other thing I wanted to get done was to get new bungees on the main axle. I had purchased all new bungees of three different sizes to replace the bungees on the carriage and the wing. The ones on the main axles required cutting to length, cauterizing each end, and then wrapping them around under tension eight times and bolting them at each end. Relatively simple process, although surprisingly time-consuming, but I was able to complete it. I also wanted to get two more washers for the wheels to tighten them still more. Shouldn’t be a problem.

So I went home with at least a partially successful airport visit.

Friday, May 6, 2011 On to the Next Thing

Off to the airport on a rare non-weekend. The weather was forecast to be warm and dry, so I decided to play hooky from work. The wheels project is complete, so the next subproject is to mount the motor and get it running. I was able to get the motor mounted except for two stubborn bolts that wouldn’t line up. I didn’t have a pry-bar that would help, so that will have to be done next time.

Not much new to report, except that progress is definitely happening. Maybe I’ll be flying yet this year.

Saturday, April 30, 2011 Wheels Up!

Last week I extracted the main axles housings to replace the 1” axles with 5/8” axles. I didn’t know who I would get to do the machining work, but after some research, I finally made contact with Bob Herman at Herm’s Welding and Repair in Minnetrista. I showed him the axles and told him what I wanted done. He said it might be two weeks, and the cost ballpark would be “60 or 80 dollars”. But he got the work done early and called last Thursday to tell me he was done. I was able to get there on Friday afternoon. What I saw was excellent work, and I’m pleased with his professionalism. Everything looked beautiful and will work great.

I took the axles to the airport on Saturday. It was cold, windy, and rainy, but inside the hanger it wasn’t bad, even though it isn’t heated in there. The front wheel needed some work; when I reassembled it after the accident I had left out the spacers, but was able to get them put back without much problem.

I also installed the rear axles and everything fit perfectly. I didn’t attach the wheels because I had not moved the tires and tubes to the new rims from the old rims. On the way back from the airport I stopped at Menards and picked up a tool to remove the valve stems and with its help later Saturday night I was able to move the tires and tubes to the new rims. So next time I get to the airport, I’ll put the wheels on, and that subproject will be complete. I put the old wheels on Craigslist for $20 for both, so I’ll see what happens.

Finally, I worked on completing the mounting of the Kawasaki motor. Things progressed very well. I was able to complete the attachment of the front mounts including the front engine cables. But the rear mounts were a problem because I did not have enough large saddles and large washers. Now the adventure begins to find some large saddles. First of all, I didn’t know what they were called—round plastic washers with one flat side and the other side curved to fit the tubing. I spent hours on Google trying to find what these things were called. In the assembly manual they were known as “large saddles”, but a Google search didn’t result in finding them anywhere on the web. Finally, after paging through seemingly hundreds of catalogs, I spotted a picture that looked like the right part referred to as “cove spacers”. But even though my earlier attempts to locate them as “saddles” using Google proved fruitless, I found the saddles were in the LEAF catalog all along. Apparently Google search does not search detail in the LEAF catalog. So now I need to order some of these saddles and I should be able to complete the mounting of the motor, and start connecting the muffler and the fuel lines and throttle controls. So it was a very productive time at the airport.