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Tech Tips.
I thought i would share a Tech Tip. Have you ever had O Rings that you need to get over threads and over ledges and it feels like your going to tear up the O Ring putting it on. So the answer is easy. Use Teflon tape to make a ramp, use it to fill the void you need to get over and to cover the threads. It works amazing. Once the O Ring is in place, just remove the teflon tape. You will not have to stretch the O Rings and all of the very slight stretching to get over the threads is evenly done.
Zip ties works good for putting on Springs and won’t damage the spring . Don’t use pliers to put them on will cause early breaking of the spring.
My Revolt Trike came with heat shrink over the muffler springs. What a great idea. Looks better than the silicone that is often used and after 5 years they are still in place,
Freezing Bearings before putting them in works great to shrink the bearing.
Remember if your looking for resistance in something you have to have it under load. If it is not under load it will not indicate resistance. Then use a Volt Ohm Meter and turn it to volts and or microvolts, then check for voltage on the wires from one location to the other. Here is the thing, your not checking for voltage from ground to positive, your checking the positive wire from one end to the other or any place in between. If there is resistance it will show potential difference in the form of Volts. Google this if you have never done this. You can check your battery posts for poor contact using this method. Also can check fuses for parasitic draws in that circuit.
Hopefully others will add some additional tech tips.
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18 Replies
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Another Tip. Keep a large piece of leather near your vice. It is great for gripping and protecting things you don’t want to get ruined and also is great if your heating things to bend. I cut up an old welding glove that had holes in the finger.
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Larry’s tip of removing rubber hoses by lifting a small section of the hose with a screw driver (or pick) and then shooting some WD40 in there really helps. Use your leather that you have near your vice to grip the hose and hopefully it is effortless to remove it.
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specialty tools. Every now and then it helps to make some kind of special tool to work on things. I altered some wrenches to make adjusting my bowden cables easier. I didn’t like the way the wrenches that i had fit on the adjustment nuts, my exhaust pipe was in a place that didn’t allow the perfect wrench connection, so i bent some wrenches using mapp gas and a vice. then i made them thinner by grinding them. Now I can easily get to those areas with a perfect grip. I used some extra combination wrenches that i had and also bought one just for that purpose. I also made a special screw driver to fit the idle adjustment screw. i cut the end of the combination wrench partly off and made it into more of a flare nut tyupe wrench. Using them is so nice and easy now.
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Date all of your zip tie packages and you will be amazed how fast your life is going by. In Arizona zip ties age pretty fast and I have found the brand at Home depot does pretty good. I only install very newish ones. I don’t throw away my older ones though, I use them to temporarily hold things for me when working on my trike. They can be that extra pair of hands at times. Of course there is nothing like a second person helping you but that is not always available.
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Gear Box inspection at 600 hours. So I just pulled my gearbox for the 600 hour inspection. Prior to pulling it i called the Tech at Lockwood and spoke to him. He told me NOT to take off the large nut that holds the gear on. He said that if there is something wrong with my gear box, they will then instruct me to take that large nut off because the mating gear has to be replaced as. a set. I inspected that gear and did not see any wear. He said most of the times there are no problems. I have used 100 percent of the time 100LL So we will see. For the Revolt the two crossbar frame supports need to be loosed. The Bottom one has to come down so there is enough room to slide the gear box back and release it. The top one all i needed to do was take the bolt out on one side and that allowed the bottom one to drop down. Very easy job. I think I’ll need to use a crows foot to torque the new fuel pump upon re-installation.
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Rotax instructions for use of Loctite. The instructions are often given with the EU number for their Loctite number. So finding the equivalent for our number is often necessary. For example Maintenance Manuel calls for Loctite 5910 for the re-installation of the gearbox cover. While you can order 5910, if you call Lockwood they will tell you they use 598. Loctite 598 is the American version.
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Roger, the rotax engine is designed for auto gas and lasts longer, less oil changes and the list goes on. 100ll is good for long term storage and vapor lock for bad fuel/system designs.
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The latest operator manual does say that 100LL is harder on the valve seats. It also states that 100LL may be used exclusively. I change my oil every 25 hours which to me is a very easy task. I clean the oil tank every 100 hours and there really isn’t much lead build up in the bottom of the oil tank. The lead that is there comes out with 1 swipe of a paper towel. The way the oil tank is designed it just stays down there. I change spark plug every 100 hours and I do a leak down test every time at the same time. My leak down tests have been 78/80 on all 4 cylinders every time. Things i really hate about auto fuel is it so corrosive and in my motorcycles it always plays havoc with my carbs. Av gas never gives me a problem in that area. Octane rating Required for the 100uls is pretty high and 100LL never has an issue there. I wish I could get 100LL without the lead and it would be the perfect fuel 🙂 I only have 610 hours experience using it so maybe i am like an addict that says he will quit soon. 🙂
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How do you know your scale is accurate when testing your carb floats to be under 7 grams? Buy some small test weights, they are very cheap. I have several different types of scales and i use the test weights to verify calibration. My latest floats weigh in at 6.5 grams. I spoke with some of you and you highly recommend the blue floats. Let me know if anyone has heard anything bad about them. I plan on putting in the blue floats if I need to replace the floats.
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Roger, I have used the blue floats (Marvel Scheibler) for 3 years and have had no change in the weights from day one. I check them twice a year.
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Thanks for sharing Jim. A pilot at my airport just put them in also and thinks they are the way to go also.
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Rivnuts. I am sure most of you know about Rivnuts and their uses, but possibly someone does not. Rivnuts can be a solution when you need to have a bolt in place and the metal is not thick enough to tap and or also you can’t get behind to put a nut on the back of the bolt. My latest uses for Rivnuts were making the battery tray holder. Go to youtube and put in Rivnut. I have the tool for installing them but also use just a bolt and washers to install.
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Rivnuts. Never heard of them. Neato. Could be sold as RV nuts as I can see how they would be nice if one could actually find the studs.
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Hole saw tip. This works really good when drilling with a hole saw. First drill a 1/4 inch hole Any bit you like. Sweet up the hole saw and use a smooth shank drill bit but reverse the drill bit so the smooth part is sticking out instead of the drill bit. The smooth part will be the guide for the hole saw and will not enlarge the hole you predrilled. The smooth part of the drill blade won’t catch the sides of the hole and allows the hole saw to cut a perfect circle I just drilled a 2 inch hole in 1/4 steel using this method and it cut a perfect hole. Before I knew this trick I struggled with making the hole saw in aluminum trying to make some gauge cutouts. CNC is better but don’t have that expensive tool. T
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Propeller Tape also sold as Helicopter tape.
My Eprop came with this type of tape on the propeller. The purpose is to protect the leading edge of the propeller from small objects that might strike the propeller. 3M makes a very high quality self sticking tape designed for this purpose. My Eprop came with .79 inches wide and 310 MM long (tip of propeller inwards.).
After landing on numerous dirt and some rocky runways, the Propeller showed a few strikes of who knows what size object. The propeller tape showed the impact zone from turning clear to a little off color and slight tears in the tape.
Repair and replacing the tape.
I used a heat gun to very gently warm the tape and the tape will slowly come off when warmed. If you pull slow enough the tape will come off in one piece. After the tape is removed a portion of glue residue will remain. The glue is very stuck onto the propeller. I tried numerous products to break the bond of the glue. I did not allow some of the products to touch the propeller but only contact the glue, namely 3M contact adhesive remover. Results. Even the contact adhesive remover had limited effect on the glue. Other products i used included WD40 which had some effect but limited. Alcohol had no effect, Dawn dish soap had very limited effect. The glue likes to just move around and stick to itself.
Note: in autobody use i have used Oven Cleaner to remove these types of glues, however i would not even think of using that on my propeller.
The final technique i used to remove the glue was a small amount of WD 40 covered with a small amount of cooking oil, small amount of heat and used a plastic chisel and a razor blade. I worked on very small areas at a time and removed this stuff layer by layer. I did not let the razor blade come in contact with propeller itself. The WD 40 very Slightly acted as an emulsifier, the cooking oil helped because whatever got loose from the chisel and razor blade stopped the glue from sticking back to itself. After each swipe of the blade you have to wipe the blade off.
I ordered the tape they sold at Aircraft spruce and they sent me 2 inch wide tape. 2 inch wide was too wide for my needs so i cut it using a brand new razor blade in half. I used each half. i made sure i cut all of the pieces the exact length and thickness as each other and applied them identically to the propeller to keep it in balance. Just before i applied the tape i cleaned the propeller with Windex original formula. I did not use the type of windex that bugs are supposed to not stick to. I did very slightly warm the propeller and the tape with a heat gun just to get the surface to between 80 and 90 degrees. My garage was in the 50s at the time i did it.
Result, when i finished the propeller looks brand new.
The original propeller tape had saved the propellor from 99 percent of damage and the tape itself took the shock and prevented damage that would have occurred if no tape had been present. I did find one very small area under the largest strike area that i used 1 drop of superglue to fix.
What would i do different next time? After removing the tape with a heat gun, i would warm the propellor and the tape evenly and apply the tape directly to the left over adhesive. I think the weight of the adhesive that is left behind from the old tape is minimal. The old adhesive is a suitable surface (maybe even better than the prop itself) for the new tape to be applied. Warming both the new tape and the old adhesive on the prop makes for a very sticky surface and would increase the bonding properties.
Final tips. When applying the tape do not stretch the tape. Try to order the tape in the correct size which in my opinion would be from 3/4 inch to 1 inch in width. The heat gun really helped to make the bends easier as it is applied over the propellor. Use 3M tape because it for sure is great stuff. Windex worked fine for the final cleaning. Excessive heat or chemicals could damage your propeller. A warmer day or a warmer area might not require the use of a heat gun and would be better overall. If you do have to cut the tape width, I cut mine with a piece of cardboard below. Cardboard allowed the tape to have a strong enough support for cutting but also allowed the balde to sink in and did not over dull the razor blade. I used a brand new razor blade for each section of tape i cut. if you have tape on your prop currently, take note of how they finished both ends and try to copy what was originally done.
Conclusion. I am very pleased with the results it looks brand new. If your always landing on grass and nothing ever hits your prop, you should not have to do this. If you have a better method please share.
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