Maintenance
I haven’t done much maintenance because the plane has been in the shop getting the overhaul done. I plan
on keeping a history of
maintenance here.
During the overhaul, the
front strut assembly was removed and the bearing inspected. It was dry and it looked like
it had not been checked and
greased for a long time. The strut was
stripped and repainted with Epoxy paint.
This will
allow me to touch up the
paint as it accumulates rock chips and scrapes.
The fuel primer was removed
and lubricated.
The fuel selector was
removed and lubricated. Previously it
was very difficult to move.
The tail cone was removed
and a few bolts were replaced. They had started to corrode.
The rudder upper and lower
bearings were replaced.
The oil temperature sending
unit was broken.
Dorsal Fin is being
replaced. It was badly cracked and it was the older plastic variety. There
were two or three cracks
that extended all the way to the bottom.
This can be a tricky part to
install correctly. It should be flush with the stabilizer in
the rear and mounted in the same
mounting holes on the metal
frame as t he original fin.
All four master brake
cylinders were removed and inspected.
The pilot side master had
a bent brake rod. The inside brake lines were replaced and the
hard aluminum brake lines
going to the slave cylinders
were replaced. These are hard to find
parts and they had to
be hand made. The previous brake lines were flexible hose
and when they started to bleed the brakes
it was slow and obviously
not correct. Further investigation
showed that the inside of the brake lines (flexible) going
to the slave cylinders
(about 12” ) had started to deteriorate and fowl the oil path.
The ailerons were removed
and inspected per AD. The flap torque tubes were removed, cleaned, glass beaded
and painted. There is a
section of the tube that is
exposed to the environment and begins to corrode. When reassembling the unit, they noticed one of the bolts
holding the flap assembly
together was backed out about ½ way.
The flap assembly had stripped threads on one of the
bolt holes. This unit was replaced.
The mixture cable was worn
near the end that attaches to the carb.
The cable was replaced with a
similar cable from
Fletchair. The same was done for the
carb heat cable.
Windshield has small (2
inch) cracks and needs to be replaced.
It was replaced with the ¼” gray tint windshield and it looks “sweet”.
Pitot tube is slightly bent
to the left. This has been replaced.
Control cables need to be
cleaned and tensioned. This has been
completed. Precision engine adjusted
the control yoke chain and cable tensions.
There was too much play in
the chain drive and the yokes did not match up correctly.
For Christmas my wife had
new canopy and rear windows installed.
Is she great or what! She worked
with the local
A&P at Winterset IA
(3Y3) – Greg Harrison. He did an
excellent job and I was completely surprised when I went to fly the plane.
When I opened the hangar I
new something was different but I couldn’t figure out what it was at
first. The plane looked new!
Finally (5 - 10 seconds) I figured it out. The 27 year old windows were really crazed
and landing at sunset was interesting, you couldn’t see anything out of
The Sun side canopy window.
Future Needs: