Big milestone reached today, but at this point big
milestones are still just steps in the process.
As I look forward, there is still so much left to do. Good thing I like building airplanes or else
I would be in real trouble right now…
But yes, I was super excited to get the engine up on the plane. I
think a key part of this task was the fact that I had a great
hoist. It allowed for very sensitive
movements of the engine, which was way more critical than I thought. As you raise it and move it back into place
you really have to move it around to get it to fit back into the mount. Also, as the $$$ engine is hanging by the
hoist, it is a little nerve racking.
Here are a few pics of the set up.
I had the rear of the plane up on a saw horse and the hoist raised it
right up to the mount.
I started by following the Vans instructions of inserting
the lower bolts first. I would recommend
not to do this, after I had two in and couldn’t get the third I pulled them and
started at the top. The reason these
bolts are hard to insert is because the rubber mounts only fit perfectly when
compressed. They are all off until you
suck the engine back into the mount but you can’t suck it back until the bolt
is in place. So you go one at a time and
through tightening and loosening you can eventually get them all in. Starting from the top, you can then use the
weight of the engine to compress the lower mounts and get someone better
fit. Anyway, the 4th bolt was
a pain, but it went in with a little finesse.. Below on the right is the last bolt slipping in.. Notice the upper and lower rubber mounts are reversed to account for the different forces that the engines weight puts on the mount.. (pull on top, push on bottom)
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