Joshua's RV-9A Project

More items from the pre-engine-hanging punch list tonight…

Installed the protection diode on the master contactor.  Need to order another diode for the starter contactor.

Installed the right-hand wiring passthru in the firewall, pretty much in a mirror-image location of the left one.  I found a number of builders who have put them here and said it worked well.  Their photos showed good wiring routes for everything, and it will be an ideal position for feeding the main buss wire into the Vertical Power box.  It also leaves open some real estate on the bottom of the firewall for the possibility of putting a heater box there.

Put the engine mount in place and snugged down the bolts to hold it.  Put the nose gear in and temporarily placed the bolt at the top.  I’m wondering if it would be a good idea to upgrade this to a close-tolerance bolt; I know some have tried taper pins but had a heck of a time reaming the tapered hole in the hard steel leg.

Decided to finish off the main gear legs, so hoisted the fuselage up one side at a time to adjust and drill the axle nuts for cotter pins.  The engine hoist and a double cargo strap to the gear tower worked nicely to get the wheel off the ground.  Since the gear-leg bolts are not yet torqued, it was easy to drill the top side, then pull the leg to drill the bottom hole.  After marking each hole with a drill bit, I removed the nut and ground a depression in the threads with a burr in the Dremel tool, then replaced the nut and drilled the hole.  Found this method on the forums, and it worked well to keep the axle threads from splitting and tearing up the nut threads.

For the gear, I’m using the grease recommended by the maker of the main wheels, Mobil Aviation SHC 100, a non-clay-based synthetic grease.  The smallest quantity I could find to buy was the 4.4-lb can…that’s a lot of grease, and it’s spendy stuff too.  I’m using this because the main wheels came already packed with it, and the nose wheel isn’t packed with anything; may as well use the same stuff all around.

Still to do before engine hang: seal and install the firewall recess (which will involve removing the top skin), seal and install the wiring passthrus and brake reservoir, pack the front wheel bearings, and deal with the oil pressure fitting.  Need to look up the mix ratio for the CS1900 firewall sealant so I can mix smaller batches than the entire pint can.

Installing more stuff on the firewall was the order of business again tonight…

• Painted the battery box and temporarily fit it in place (permanent install after firewall recess is riveted).
• Riveted the nutplates for the oil/manifold pressure hose adel clamps, as well as the fuse block doubler & nutplates.
• Installed the fuse blocks and buss bars.  Located one protection diode, but my crimpers are at work, and it looks like a second diode will need to be ordered.
• Drilled and installed nutplates for the transducer manifold, and temporarily fit the manifold (needs to come back off to install the hose fittings, which I need to order).
• Located, drilled, and temporarily installed the left-side wiring passthru (will install permanently with sealant).
• Fiddled around again with locations for the right-side passthru and both heater boxes.  Still undecided.  Basic question for the passthru is high (like the left side), or low (nearer the contactors).  Saw a recommendation to locate them where the wiring has a graceful path to the engine mount tubes, so wiring can follow the tubes.  This can be made to work either high or low.  Looking for photos of other folks’ master buss cable installs.
• Installed the fuel vent fittings in the bottom skin.  Still need to secure & torque the B-nuts.

More futzing with the firewall, getting bits and pieces in place while waiting for engine mounts to arrive.  The “forest of tabs” ground block from B&C arrived yesterday, so that was drilled to the firewall today.  I added an extra bolt at the end of the aft piece, to guard against any vibrations…installed a nutplate for it on the aft side, so the bolt on the fwd side could be used for an adel clamp or whatever if needed in the future.

Re-fit the fuse holders to the firewall and made up the copper bars that connect the two fuses, plus the bar that feeds the switched side of the battery contactor to the fuses, and the lug that will connect the battery cable to the contactor.  Once the copper bars were fit and drilled, I used some heatshrink tube to cover all but the ends, and notched the covers of the fuse holders to fit over the bars.

That done, I decided to fit the backrests and drill the seat hinges.  The install guide makes this seem a bigger deal than it actually was, and they went in pretty quick and easy.  I used the hinges I had made up during the fuselage build.  I may have to re-do the right side later with a new piece of hinge (Classic Aero includes hinge pieces, so I have spares), depending on how tight the canopy frame is to the seatback.

Also mixed up some proseal and glued the stainless screens to the fuel vent fittings.

No real project work tonight, but I did manage to assemble an engine hoist I picked up, and unload the engine from the back of the truck.  Also over the past few days, a bunch of parts have been ordered for FWF-related stuff, so waiting on all that to show up–due to the holidays, it should start arriving next Monday, after I’m back to work full-time.  Ah, well.

Drilled the lightening holes in the battery box with a hole saw, then cleaned them up with a rotary file and scotchbrite wheel, all in the drill press.  Will need to pick up a can of black spray paint for the box, as my can is shot (too many seasons of freezing, I think).

Dug out the “MIDI” fuse blocks and decided to mount them below and to the left of the contactors, so I fabricated a doubler plate for them; I need to order a bunch of different kinds of nutplates including single-leggers and corners–which I should have done awhile ago, but they’re spendy little things.

Drilled the holes for mounting the nutplates for the oil pressure line, but there too, need to order nutplates.

Worked more on the firewall tonight:

• finished up and mounted the doubler for the contactors
• installed the nutplates for the battery box and fabricated the battery hold-down bar and spacers
• drilled pilot holes for the lightening holes in the box (need to bring my hole saws home tomorrow to finish the  box)
• installed the nutplate for the breather hose
• made up the copper bar that runs between the contactors and ground down the mounting ear on the master contactor so it will nest with the starter contactor
• played around with possible locations for the wiring pass-thrus

Was going to install the two nutplates for the oil pressure hose as well, but can’t decide where they’re intended to be installed — I have seen pictures with them at the top corners of the recess, but turns out that hole location is a bear, since it has no flat spots for the “ears” of the nutplate.  So, more research.

Took advantage of the “extra” day off from work (since Christmas day falls on the weekend this year) to get in some shop time, since the rest of the holiday weekend will be spent doing the relatives thing.  It’s been nearly a month since I’ve done any work on the project, due to work and more work…’tis the season.  I met my goal of wrapping up all my freelance projects by Christmas, so I should be able to use more of my time away from the office to work in the shop.  Having that engine sitting there is a motivator!

Before heading out, I put in a few orders to various vendors for parts, including Lord mounts and bolts, transducer manifold, baffles and airbox, firewall sealant, wheel bearing grease, etc.  Still plenty to order, but this should let me get the engine mounted.  Also talking to SteinAir to get panel build parts and engine sensors.

First order of business in the shop was assembly of the nosegear, since the leg will need to be in place to support the weight of the engine.  After assembling the fork with the various bolts and spacers, I mounted the tube & tire to the wheel and assembled it to the fork loosely (the bearings still need to be greased, once my can of grease arrives…).  I have the Matco axle and drilled that to the fork, but won’t adjust the preload setting until the bearings are greased.  I bolted the engine mount up temporarily to look at some spacing & layout things for deciding where to install various bits, and slid the nose leg into place.  At that point, I realized that I had installed the swivel stop piece backwards; the stops should be on the forward side of the fork, not aft.  An easy swap, dropping the fork and reversing it the right way round, and all is well.

As long as the engine mount was bolted up, I took the opportunity to address the spacers needed behind the inner bottom mount points.  It turned out that after filing the lower pump nutplate down to provide clearance, all that was needed was a .063 piece, so I fabbed two circular spacers from a piece of scrap and bolted them in to test…perfect.  Pulled the gear leg and engine mount, and set to work drilling holes in the firewall.

First, the brake reservoir.  Recommended locations for all this stuff if given on the plans, so it’s just a matter of measuring it out and drilling.  Well, then drilling more, countersinking, deburring the stainless firewall, and riveting nutplates… The reservoir went on fine; I ended up using three regular washers on each side to keep the top of the canister from rubbing the bent upper part of the firewall.  Next up, I measured and drilled the hole that’s needed for access to the nosegear leg bolt, which ended up being right where I had marked it with a drill bit through the bolt hole.  This will get a stainless plug to close it once the leg is installed.

Next on the list was the battery box, so I pulled that out and drilled/dimpled/riveted the side angles to the box.  I will drill the lightening holes later, since my hole saw set is still at the office from the big studio build. I drilled out the necessary rivets from the firewall and clecoed the box in place for now.  I’m intending to–as much as is practical–install everything on the firewall using nutplates on the aft side so that removal/installation can be a one-person job from the front, without having to crawl under the panel to twist wrenches.  The battery box is prepunched for nutplates to be attached to the mounting angles, then bolts run from the cabin side to attach it.  I don’t see why this couldn’t be reversed, and bolted on from the front, so I’ll research that to make sure I’m not all wet.

With the battery box clecoed on for spacing, the next logical step was the contactors, but I’ve read that the doubler in the plans may not put the holes in the correct locations.  Instead,  I drilled out the specified rivets and installed the nutplates on the stiffeners, and fabricated the doubler with no holes.  I bolted the contactors up temporarily and marked where the center holes needed to be for them to align well, then drilled those holes.  I’ll back-drill the doubler from these holes next session.

To do: figure out where all the other nutplates need to go on the firewall for breather tubes, oil pressure line, etc.  I’m planning to hang the engine and then figure out where the best place for throttle/mixture/purge cables to pass will be, along with the dual heater boxes, about which I am still undecided as to the preferred location(s).  Considering either center/right, left/right, or both in the center.

How to quadruple the value of a pickup truck…

Picked up the shiny new Aero Sport Power engine today (1 day shy of 4 years since the tail kit was delivered, but who’s counting) at the freight depot, after a bit of a shipping snafu (I was expecting a call when it arrived so I could go pick it up…after watching the “expected delivery” date keep incrementing on the tracking site I called them, they said it had already arrived and had been sitting for several days because they had no phone number.  The phone number was marked on both the paperwork and the side of the box…)

Four lag bolts later, I popped the top on the crate and beheld the wonders.  160 horses in a metallic blue package.  The Airflow Performance throttle body is an impressive piece of kit, as well.  Another box contained ignition leads, installation hardware and brackets, the wiring harness for the preheat system, engine manual and logbook, break-in guide, FI service manual, and even a couple shirts.

After inspection, I wrapped it back up in the plastic sheet with the desiccant bags inside for the time being.  I suppose I should get some of those desiccant plugs that screw into the spark plug holes to help keep the guts dry.  Until I get an engine hoist, it’ll have to sit in the back of the truck, though, which means Allison’s car is outside…which means we’re sure to get another whopper of a snowstorm.

Back home from the turkey trip — received an email from Aero Sport Power on Thanksgiving that my engine is nearly ready to ship.  So, pending the necessary large check, I could have an engine by Christmas.  I have zero done (or even parts for) the FWF stuff, so much to be ordered there.  (Wonder if I can trade in some Christmas trinkets…)

Today, I read up on drilling the engine mount and did the deed.  This wasn’t a big deal at all: I supported the mount with a cargo strap hooked to the center spar, and moved it around until I found the best alignment with the four corner holes.  Drilled two to 1/4″ and used some fuel line scraps to make bushings for the AN6 mount holes, then pinned those in place with some long AN4 bolts and drilled the other two holes.  I used some long clamps to hold the mount in place while drilling for accuracy, and drilled through a couple more pieces of fuel line.  Once the 1/4″ holes were done, I removed each bolt sequentially and enlarged the hole for the AN6 bolt.  After the large bolt was inserted, I moved to the next hole.  Once the four corner holes were drilled and bolted, the lower inboard holes were drilled, first to 1/4″ then 3/8″.  I have the common gap between the mount and the firewall at the lower inboard holes; there are some spacers with 3/8″ holes left over from the fluid fitting bags, which look as though they might work ideally as  spacers there.

Once the mount was bolted on, I inserted the nose gear leg and reamed that bolt hole.  I did have to scrape off a bit of extra powdercoat from the lower ring of the leg to allow it to insert completely, and polished off the light rust that had formed.  Coated the exposed steel with grease for protection.

Finally, pulled the engine mount and gear leg and set it aside again.  There’s plenty of holes that need to be made in the firewall before it goes on for good…and more holes to be made after.  This is a chicken-and-egg part of the build, where you don’t really want to mount the engine until all (or at least most) of the FW penetrations are made and pieces mounted, but you don’t know for sure where those holes should be until the engine is mounted.

Ran another cable in the right wing conduit for the OAT probes, that had been left out in the previous bundle.  This terminates at the middle inspection panel, as I thought that would be better than placing it at the outer panel with the bellcrank and autopilot servo…keeps the wire away from the controls that way.

Put the nutplates and cable wear blocks on the baggage wall halves and set them aside.

Clecoed the inner bottom wing skins to the rear spar.  I need to look up and see what pattern others have found works for riveting the bottom skins.