Folks
This part of the thread may not be interesting to as many folks, but I will post some info from the float rebuild and more install stuff.
The front mechanism has been totally gone through. Everything cleaned, checked for wear, lubricated, corrosion proofed, etc. All service letters, and bulletins, were checked and complied with. It has a fair number of parts, kinda like a tailwheel assembly.
These are the front wheels. The inside mating surfaces were showing signs of stress. They will get etched, alodined, primered and painted, before reassembly.
I like to use these products from PPG for metal prep. Etch and alodine for aluminum and also steel. They call it metal cleaner and metal conditioner, or aluminum cleaner and aluminum conditioner.
After everything is rebuilt "baby will get new shoes". The old tires did not look all that bad but as best I can tell they were original, thus 17 years old.
Part of the main gear assembly getting the cleaning, inspection, check-up, lube, reassembly, etc.
Several folks I spoke to, including the folks at Wip, recommended this grease. I got a case.
Because the gear must be cycled to be adjusted and worked on, my pump assembly had to be removed from the plane, and set up for use.
I acquired my fittings from several places and they were different colors. I had them cleaned and re anodized so they all match.
Hopefully someone will find something helpful here
Bill
Very Blessed.
what size tire's? and have you landed or taxied on any soft grass? thanks
The nose tires are the same as the Scott 3200 Tail wheel. McCreary 2.8/2.5 X 4
The mains are AirTrac 500-5 6 ply
From one perspective the weight of the plane is spread out over 4 contact points Vs 3 so that might have an impact on soft fields. I don't have any experience to address your question.
I have landed on grass with no issues at all. I can't say I've really done any "soft field" landings.
Hope this helps
Bill
Very Blessed.
Bill you have too much time on your hands. You have enough grease for a 1000 trips to Alaska. Rubber today is nowhere as good as it was 17 years ago. Your never going to get close to me when you come visit and see the junk that I have fun flying
Glenn
Hey Bill,
When does the "Flying a Javron Cub" thread start, I assume you are going to finish that epic run you started?
Kirby
Last edited by OLDCROWE; 01-07-2016 at 08:56 AM.
Remember, These are the Good old Days!
Glenn - boy you are right. I have already started selling the extra grease. If anyone needs a little Aeroshell22 grease just let me know. LOL.... I've got plenty.
Kirby - Thanks for asking and yes, Lord willing, I hope to try again to fly the "Trip of a lifetime" that I didn't finish the last time. I have not decided on doing a thread on that.
Folks
I am asked........."What would you do different if you were to build again tomorrow?" Here is a thought.
Note where the front of the pod sits. The pod is fixed in place due to the aft wires from the floats. I suspect just about all pods are going to be very close to this location. This drives the location of your hydraulic lines for brakes, skis, floats. You think to yourself........"I'm never going to use a pod, floats, hyd skis etc". I think you might change your mind, or perhaps end up selling it to someone who will want to do that, so I propose that you consider .................
Welding in a small (say 2" X 4") steel .050 plate/bracket right in this area, forward of this crossbar, flush with the fabric line, to give you a solid place to have your hydraulic lines exit the fuselage. The R you see in the photo is "Right Rear" on the rudder pedal so I could keep things straight on reassembly. The hyd line exit needs to be forward of this cross tube that my finger is on.
Pardon the dirt, its a work in progress.
This is how, and where, my hydraulics will exit. It will work well and be a pretty clean install but it would have been even better to have a permanent mount rather than have them attached to a inspection cover. You will need three fittings on each side. One for "brakes", an "up" line and a "down" line. The two "up" lines will be joined with a crossover line, as will the "down" lines. Thus I have two "T" bulkhead fittings (AN804) in front of the right rudder pedal because that is where my hand hyd pump is and where the hydraulic lines go through the floor, and a brake fitting (AN833). The two "T" fittings have a crossover line to the left side where I have 3, 90 degree AN833 fittings. This would all have been much easier to do before the floorboards and covering were installed, but at that time I had no idea how all this was going to go together. Hopefully, this will help someone.
Bill
Last edited by Bill Rusk; 01-09-2016 at 09:33 PM.
Very Blessed.
I had to do a little painting today. Here is a tip - paint does not dry worth a poo poo at 65 degrees. It's winter here and temp at night is dropping to single digits. When I run the hangar at 65, things in the hangar will be closer to 60. That just does not work for paint. I like to use a bunch of lights to raise the temp. Much cheaper than trying to heat the hangar to 80.
You can use your handy dandy temp gun (you got one for Christmas - right?) to check how things are cooking. I find I can usually get the parts up to around 90 degrees. Left overnight they will be well done in the morning. Try it, you'll like it.
Hope this helps
Bill
Very Blessed.
The final version. This was a real pain. Do it before you cover.
Bill
Very Blessed.
Very nice work Bill!
Remember, These are the Good old Days!
in the smith 12 and the pa-12 that javeron built for me when he was contracted by TCOW, both had a plate welded in for amphib hydraulic line fittings, they even already had the through holes in them and were powder coated with the rest of the fuse. So does Jay not put these in any more? Maybe a heads up to others as i am sure he would if it were requested.
Marc
Marc, I think that Bill was counting ounces when he specked his kit. Now it has bitten him.Mine also has those plates welded in.
N1PA
Well ......I wish I could say I was counting ounces, but the truth is I knew I needed them and it was on my "list" .....but I did not know where to put in the plates. Just a lack of knowledge. .I asked a couple of folks and they did not have a good answer. I guess I did not ask the right people.
Eventually it turned into......"I'll figure it out later"
Hopefully, now folks will know where to weld in those plates.
Of course there are a lot of ways to skin a cat...... YMMV......and all that.....
Bill
Very Blessed.
This is not the best photo but it is all I have. This shows the crossover lines and how they are run. On the top (this is right side when in the airplane) in the photo are the bulkhead "T" fittings that the hyd pump lines connect into. Bottom in the photo (this would be the left side once in the aircraft) are the 90 degree bulkhead fittings. If I had it to do over I would have done this before covering and just capped the two fittings on each side until I added the floats. Not shown are the brake fittings though you can see the holes they go into.
Hope this helps
Bill
Very Blessed.
Borrowed these Plastic lined pliers from Buck.
That, plus a strap wrench, and a LOT of umph from Mark and myself, with Buck's supervision, allowed us to get the new style Hyd actuators apart for the rebuild.
The old style, non-rebuildable, Hyd actuator is on the left. The right two, black ones, are the new actuators. These have now been cleaned, inspected and rebuilt with new O-rings, seals, wipers, etc. Ready to install on the mains. The nose gear ones are the old style but seem to be working just fine so I will leave those in until after this season and make that a winter upgrade project for next year.
I know 95% of you guys already know this but for the new guys.....you can get the piston out of your brake caliper by just shooting a little air in the Hyd line. Be sure to hold it, or wrap it in a rag, so when it pops out it does not fall to the floor and get messed up. There is an O-ring on the piston that you will want to replace when you clean it up. Not really much to "rebuild" as that is all there is. Clean it up with solvent and a scotch-brite pad, replace the O-ring, and put new brake pads on and its "rebuilt".
Brake pads are really easy with this tool. You can get it from AC Spruce, Avery (Bob and Judy Avery retired and were bought out by Cleveland Tool), USTool etc. Link to AC Spruce for the tool.......http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...RapcoBrake.php
It will cost about 40 bucks and will pay for itself pretty quick. Or split it with a couple of hangar friends. It is not a tool you will use every day but it sure is handy. I like to hit the rivet with a #30 drill to get it started before using the tool to press the rivet out. You don't need to drill the whole rivet out, just a couple of seconds with a drill will thin the rivet material out so it squeezes out nice and easy. Then use the tool to squeeze in the new rivets and whaalah......you have new brake pads. Pretty cool.
And there you have it. Newly rebuilt brake caliper with new brake pads. All in a days work.
Folks - just to be sure you get it right. The puck in the photo above is not how it goes in the caliper. The o-ring needs to go away from the brake pad. The O-ring goes in towards the bottom of the pocket. That piston goes in and out. If you put the puck in the wrong way, with the 0-ring close to the brake pad, as the puck is forced out by brake pressure it may go out far enough to pop out of the cyl, then you will have brake failure.
Hope this helps
Bill
Last edited by Bill Rusk; 02-16-2020 at 06:40 PM.
Very Blessed.
Piper went to those non-rebuild able actuators back in the late 90s. Dumbest thing ever unless you want to sell spare parts. O`rings are cheap.
Folks
Here is a lesson........ I sorta re-learned, and would like to remind you of, so you can avoid the pain.
There are 4 AN3-6A bolts per side, that hold the main gear tracks in place. When I saw this I thought.....hmmmmmm......lots of thread showing there. Perhaps the bolt is too long. But......
You can see the bolt/nut on the left looks good. Just about one thread, maybe two showing. There are a total of 8 of these bolts that hold the track plates in. 4 per plate, two plates per float. They all had exactly the same washer configuration. A thin washer under the bolt head and a regular washer next to the nut. I think that is factory std. I do not think these plates have ever been removed. And it agrees with the parts manual. If you look at the above photo a little closer you can see that the left bolt goes through an extra layer of aluminum, the bulkhead is reinforced there, so the bolt fits perfect. The right bolt has less material to penetrate so it is a little long. I did not really like this but that is factory so Mark and I put it back together per the book. In this case......bad idea. Sure enough the nut bottomed out on the shank and stripped. Twice.... and bad enough that we had to use a Dremel to cut it out/off. Big pain. All I needed to do was use another washer under the nut and it would have been fine. Ultimately that is what I did. But.....the lesson learned here........is trust your gut. I knew that was a lot of threads showing and I did not like it, but I was determined to put it back to factory specs.
You do have to be careful making changes. Sometimes the wrong size bolt or screw can impact something else. In this case it had no affect, except to make it better, to add a washer.
Hope this helps
Bill
Very Blessed.
Did you consider Kydex on the sides? I'm following your lead on the ceiling but I think the sides deserve something more robust so I'm using 0.040" Kydex in white too.
Somewhere along the way I have lost the ability to act politically correct. If you should find it, please feel free to keep it.
There are no new ways to crash an airplane no matter how hard you may try!
Hey Tom
Happy to help I can. I think it works well. It is pretty durable unless you are loading antlers and really odd, sharp edged stuff, back there. It does not drum, rattle, or shake. It is light and more attractive (to me anyway) than no interior. Increases headroom.
Hope this helps
Bill
Very Blessed.
Not that I have anything to worry about but is that any issue for long haired passengers?
Last edited by OLDCROWE; 01-27-2016 at 10:09 PM.
Remember, These are the Good old Days!
Thanks for the pics bill. I had an atlee metal headliner, and this past annual when I was shedding weight ditched the headliner. It weighs 5 pounds. I have nothing now and like what you did
Thanks.
Thanks, Bill. I needed to see those photo's also.
Folks
Don't know if you are aware of it but there are a couple of websites you might enjoy.
http://www.seaplaneforum.com - this is not the Seaplane Pilots Assoc site. That forum is dead and apparently they don't care. I have sent no less than four request to different email addresses asking for password help and gotten ZERO response. Like sending an email to an uninhabited planet. I still like the SPA, still support it, but .......this is a better forum.
Another site that is new and might be good......http://seaplanemagazine.com - an online magazine (I made the cover...pretty cool hugh?) They have a Facebook site too if you are into Facebook.
Just passing on a little info
As always......"Hope it helps"
Bill
Last edited by Bill Rusk; 02-01-2016 at 02:34 PM.
Very Blessed.
THANK YOU BRAD, for that awesome photo!!
Folks
Gotta share something new to me. Picked up a bearing packing tool today. Spent my life packing bearings by hand. Works fine, maybe, but this tool is AWESOME. Does way better than doing it by hand. Not an issue of speed, or messiness, or anything like that. I just think it does a WAY better job of packing grease in the bearing. Cost about 30 bucks. You can probably get better units and maybe cheaper, (this was kinda an impulse buy) but I gotta say I recommend a bearing packing tool. Quality........its all about Quality. (Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
Time to pack some wheel bearings........
So this is what it looks like. I know, lots of you guys are thinking.....this guy built an airplane and he has never owned a packing tool? Whew........
Well you are right.....I never said I had a clue ...OK?
Ya put some grease (I got lots) in the tool, put the bearing in.........
Put the little beveled top in.... and press really hard.....I stood on it......
And whaalaa....look at the grease squirting up through the race. It really does a much better job than the old manual method. I like it!!!!
And another tidbit, float specific, but REALLY important if you have Wip 2100 Amphibs. This is the clevis connected to the retract arm. Note the gap under the arm in the clevis. About 1/4 inch. Good, all is well.
This is the clevis, about an inch deep. BUT there is more............
This is the other side of the same clevis. The notch is about 1 1/4" deep. If you get the clevis turned with the short side facing the lever arm, it will hit in the notch of the clevis. This would almost certainly result in a fatigue fracture at some point. Most clevis are symmetrical so this is an easy gotcha. I recommended to Wip that they put a NOTE in their service manual regarding this.
Hope this helps
Bill
Last edited by Bill Rusk; 01-30-2016 at 09:54 PM.
Very Blessed.
Spent a chunk of the day today working on the nose gear mechanism. First we took the gear legs off, cleaned, checked, lubricated, etc.
Took the nose bumpers off - VERY CAREFULLY. The new ones are 420 bucks each. And they would not match (the style changed from fiberglass to rubber) so you would have to buy two of em. With Tax and shipping, probably close to 900 bucks. VERY CAREFULLY.
Behind the bumper. The nose gear box.
Mark, cleaning, checking, lubricating, etc. Thanks for your help Mark. It was a good day.
Another little "gotcha" The little black things along the right side fit on the shafts at the corners and slide in the rails, as the gear retracts and extends. I'm not sure exactly of the type polymer (delrin? or what it is) BUT.....these little things will deform with a bad landing, or if you operate on a really rough strip where a lot of stress is placed on the nose gear. They spread out, get fatter.....and then bind up in the rails. The hydraulic actuator puts out lots of force so the gear will work just fine BUT......... it is binding and that will cause damage somewhere down the line. Mine were binding so bad it took a hammer too get them out, when they should have just slid out onto the floor, but you could not tell. My gear retracted and extended just fine. I don't think they have ever been replaced in 17 years.
So, if you have a set of Wip amphibs, be sure to have these checked at annual. A number of folks asked me - "Why are you overhauling the floats?....they work fine"
This is why. You just don't know unless you get in there and go through things.
Hope this helps
Bill
Very Blessed.
Good for you, Bill. There are indeed a lot of "gotchas" involved with amphibious floats that can spoil your day. The best medicine: Good preventive maintenance.
MTV
Back in the paint booth. Uggghhh. I repainted all the struts. It is tough in the winter getting the heat up,.........well its not really tough, you just turn the thermostat up. The tough part is paying the heat bill. Making progress.
Alaska in 2016 or bust!!
Bill
Last edited by Bill Rusk; 02-01-2016 at 08:39 AM.
Very Blessed.
The only problem with that bearing packer is getting the grease in it. I found one that you insert a tube of grease in and it works on the same principal.
Steve
I agree. It might not be the best one. It has a grease zirc to fill it and that is pretty slow. What make and model ((and where to get, (I picked mine up at NAPA))do you have and recommend. I'm hooked now and would consider investing in a better unit.
Bill
Very Blessed.
I have one and really like it but grease guns and I don't get along, even my pneumatic one gives me fits. I will post a picture of mine. It is not made as well as yours but is easier to load.
I use the old gob of grease in the palm of my hand method. Messy, Yes but quick and does a complete job. Why is it that greasing tools are always a pain in the neck?
N1PA
Pete
I'm with you. I've always done it by hand, and I've done a bunch over the years, but after using this tool my confidence level has gone way up. Before, I was always just a little unsure I had really gotten that grease into every little recess. After using the tool and seeing that grease squirt up through the race I just have a lot more confidence that that bearing is truly well, and completely, saturated.
Bill
Very Blessed.
Folks
I got the little black trolly slider blocks from Wip. Very expensive but once again I have to give Wip credit. They have had every part I needed in stock and shipped the same day. Expensive but good. The new blocks are about 10 thousandths of an inch smaller. Mark (MMR), the mechanical engineer, says they may have swollen from water absorption rather than hard landings or rough strips. I guess certain polymers are rated by the expected amount of moisture they will absorb. Either way the new ones work as they should. At this point the floats have been completely mechanically overhauled. I still have a couple of other things to do including a leak check and seal session and they are ready to go back on. But here is another gotcha.........
This is the front gear. At the top of the white gear leg is the trolley. Note that it has four bolts that secure it to the gear leg. These bolts are not all the same size and this is NOT in the parts manual. For some reason the bolts are not delineated. I'm sure it was just a oversight. It is also not noted in the Service Manual. But they have to go in the right place or there will be trouble in paradise.
This is the backside of those bolts. Note that the ones at the top have little to no thread showing and the ones on the bottom have the normal 1 to 3 threads showing.
This is where the trolly makes the turn from vertical to horizontal. Note the tear dropped shaped skid(wear) mark(s) next to the end of my screwdriver. If you put the long bolts on top they will hit as the trolly makes the turn. Once past the turn there is plenty of clearance. The hydraulic ram provides enough force that you will never know you are seriously dragging the bolts across the structure.
The clearance is close enough that the small wear marks you see were done with the bolts in correctly the whole time. Perhaps the were made when retracting/extending the gear in turbulence, or air loads, or just 17 years of use caused these. They are not bad at all but it would be very ugly if you get these bolts in the wrong place.
It might be hard to see, my camera would not focus, but this is from the inside, and if you look carefully you can see the top nuts coming around the corner. The steel tube is the actuator arm.
What the gear looks like as it is retracting.
As it comes in the lip goes over the long bolt and that locks it in the "Up" position.
Gear fully retracted.
Just fun stuff....perhaps it will help someone.
Bill
Very Blessed.
Folks
In the continuing saga.......Wip issued a Service Bulletin for the pump out tubes and so I am replacing all my pump out tubes in order to bring things up to par.
The original tubes had a flat bottom and I guess it was possible (pretty unlikely but possible) for the tube to suction seal itself to the bottom of the float so that it would not let the water in.
So Wip recommended shaping the bottom of the tube like this, so that it would not suction seal itself up.
The tubing they use (for the 2100's at least) is available from McMaster-Carr. It is part #5181K27 Crack resistant Polyethylene tubing 1/2" ID and 5/8"OD white.
But, as you might be able to see, it needs to be flared to fit the pump out fitting.
I used a piece of dowel rod. I heated the end of the tubing with a heat gun and then while it was soft forced to onto the dowel which expanded it enough to later fit on the pump out shaft. It actually worked out pretty well.
So......another SB complied with.....and the floats are coming together. Next up = putting a floor in the float lockers.
Hope this entertains or helps
Bill
Last edited by Bill Rusk; 02-19-2016 at 09:29 PM.
Very Blessed.
Float Locker Floor Boards
Wip has nice large float lockers but as you can see the bottom is not flat, nor smooth. That can be problematic for cargo. For one, everything is funneled into the middle and there is usually a little water in there so things get wet.
The lockers are large enough to hold 3 five gallon fuel cans per float (not saying you "should" just that it "could" be done). But....again....with the bottom as is, it would not work very well.
So.......I took a little left over composite sheet and created a floor at the widest part of the locker. Looks good. It will need a little support but I was pretty impressed with myself. Don't worry....my little ego trip did not last long (as usual).
RUT...ROHH..... floor is too high and now the fuel can won't fit. Gonna have to make another floor, a little smaller, and a little lower.
So....I just dropped a smaller piece of composite material in the center and lower and it seemed like it was going to work. Now I needed to come up with a way to support this. I was also warned that I needed to find a way to attach the floor board as having a piece of plywood flopping around in the locker unsecured was not a good idea.
So I took some angle stock, drilled a couple of attach holes and.......
Made this quick drill jig so all the holes were in exactly the same place....
Another photo of quickie drill jig set up.....
And it goes in like this. All I needed to do to the floats was drill a few small holes in the formers. If I need to it can all be easily removed and the floats returned to factory condition. The three angle braces, with nuts and bolts weighs 7.55 ounces per float. This also gives a way to attach the floorboards.......
Yep....you guessed it.....more nut plates. Have I told you today how much I like nut plates?
I will use a finish washer and flush mount it so cargo does not catch on it.
So the floor boards go in and look like this. You can't get the full size floor through the door so it has to be in two pieces. I elected for structural reasons to have the center line offset to one side. A couple of screws per board will hold them in place and yet make removal pretty simple. Unfortunately, the total weight is close to 5 pounds per float. So.....I don't think I will have them in place unless I am going on a trip or something where I will actually need the locker space.
Hope this helps
Bill
Very Blessed.
Bookmarks