MT Governor stud length

Previously I had installed my MT-860-3 but noticed that the studs were a little on the long side. I tried screwing them in a little further, but it felt like they were already bottomed out.

Here you can see that the stud threads are obviously too long to the point where there is non-threaded area showing past the governor.



Jeff Schans at Thunderbolt sent me next day a variety of stud lengths to rectify this. On the bottom is the original stud followed by some of the replacement options that Thunderbolt sent to me.



One thing I noticed as I was going through this exercise was that upon removal the threaded blind hole in the case was actually a lot deeper than I thought it was. So rather than swapping out the studs, I set the existing stud a little deeper and all was well. Sorry for the run-around Thunderbolt. Thanks for working with me.



Now back to research on the 860-3. I noticed that everyone seems to be using the 860-5 now. I have to go find out if I need to swap this out.

MT 15" spinner clearance

Previously I measured and posted the distances from the spinner to the crank flange for the MT-12-B. The issue with the previous post was that I had assumed that the MT-12-B came with a 15" spinner to fit my showplanes cowl. Once I started to fit things I noticed that the diameters did not add up and the mistake was that the "default" when you order a 12-B prop is that it comes with a P-469-1 spinner. The correct part number for the 15" spinner is P-285-1-A. Also, because I special ordered mine as Matte Black, this is a no-stock item. :(

The difference is significant!


The new clearance measurement are inline with the trusty internet posts.
 

I have my starter ring gear off for the cowl fit/installation and I also took the spinner to cowl gap out of the mockup plate distance rather than putting spacers on the cowl. For my records here is my horrible hand writing tracking the crank flange to spinner distance. I may increase this gap to more than 1/8" but for now here is my mockup target number:

Vertical Power

I was about to place a digi-key order a couple of weeks ago in order to buy the molex crimper for the vertical power molex connectors when I came across a document on the vertical power website that stated Vertical Power has molex (professional series) crimpers available for free rental. I figured it was one of those marketing lines that when you try to actually contact them they either ignore you or tell you that they don't have anything available.

To my surprise I was completely wrong. They shipped the crimper out the day after I contacted them, and here I am 1 week later with all of my connectors done!

March Status Photos

I have spent a good amount of time getting my panel console fitted. Everything for the most part goes right in, but there are minor cosmetic tweaks and fitting that does need to happen. It is good to see the panel looking like a panel!


As of now, I have the VPX, GTR-20, GSU primary and backup, GEA24 and the AUX fuse block mounted.


Looking back I have a mess!


The engine is coming together nicely. I got my exhaust from Vetterman and they did a wonderful job.


I have the doors complete, but I am waiting on the weather to warm up a bit before I finish cutting my plexi-glass.


Side view






I did notice that the desiccant on a couple of cylinders was starting to go clear. I replaced all of the desiccant in the plug adapters just to get ahead of that.



I have Beringer nosewheel and mains. I am waiting on the weather to warm to finishing dura-coating some of the wheel components.




I have spent a lot of time going through this door. My neighbor caught me the other day in the tail of the plane and I told them that I would be out in a minute because I was a little stuck at that point in time. They responded with "Looks like you should have built it a little bigger." If only it was that easy.

GSU-25

I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of blogging. I hope to sit down and convert some of my work logs and photos to blog posts over the next couple of days. I will start with this post as a warning. The GSU-25 has a non-symmetric footprint! Yesterday I build a doubler for mounting both of my GSU-25s (primary and backup) in the common spot on the far left hand side of the mid-panel. I test fit the GSU-25s to the doubler and proceeded to rivet the doubler to the mid-panel.



I was intending to install the GSUs to the panel with the d-sub connections closes to the ground however when I went to bolt them in place (after I had everything riveted together the bolt holes did not line up. The holes were at least an 1/8" off. I spent a good 5 minutes trying to figure out how riveting the doubler in place deformed the layout that significantly. However, when I rotated the assembly 180 degrees everything was perfect on both GSUs. A quick glance at the mechanical drawing confirms it. The whole pattern is in fact not symmetric. In thinking about it, that was probably done on purpose such that if the LRU ever needed to be serviced or replaced that it could only be re-installed in the orientation that it was previously installed in.


Because Garmin accepts basically every install orientation (with a software configuration setting), I am going to keep this as is (upside down for me), and move on to the GTR-20 installation.