gregpro50

Some aircraft porn.  I got to put an hour of ground time on it last night after getting the carbs dialed in after the rebuild.  Runs great.  Everything in the green.  Insurance is all set as of today.  Flight later this week possibly?  Two of my CFI friends are going to fly it first.  The CFI giving me training wants to fly it first with another CFI who built a model 1 KF years ago.

 

Does anyone have a picture of how the landing lights are mounted?
I really like the idea but don't know where I would put it.

I just called and they were very helpful.  They are sending me a new set of floats at no charge.
Anyone want to buy a slightly used set for a good deal?  Only used once.
Pretty damn scary that I could have just risked an engine out or an inflight fire due to crappy quality control.

Well I'm itching to see if it will fly but I've still got some things to do before I'm comfortable.  I want my instructor to be comfortable with it too. 
After running it up yesterday I found fuel leaking from the carb vent.  I pulled the float bowl and found that one of the brand new floats I just put in wasn't floating and the valve was being held open.  What kind of crap is this where they charge you a fortune for these foam pieces of garbage they call floats?  I'm going to put the old ones back in because they seemed to be working fine.  I put the new ones in a container of fuel and found that they all float at different levels.  One was obviously bad.  Now I'm wishing I just got the basic o-ring kit.  You would think they would have better quality control over the manufacture of the new floats.
It's definitely a different mentality when you're working on a plane.  I find myself double and triple checking everything I've done.  When wrenching on cars I'm used to having tools laying everywhere and basic chaos whereas now I have to treat the work as if it is surgery.  When I'm done using one tool it gets put back where it belongs and so on.  God forbid I leave a screwdriver sitting on top of the manifold when I'm running up the engine.
I've also found I like to use torque mark paint on just about any bolt I can find.  It gives me a real quick visual during a preflight to see if anything is coming loose.  If the orange dot doesn't look right.  Something is wrong.  Easy.
Its kind of fun to maintain these.  I remember thinking when I was flying the 172 that I had never even had the cowl off this thing to look a the engine.  I was trusting that some mechanic knew what he was doing and didn't forget to tighten something or ad a hose clamp.  I don't know about you but I've personally run into more than one idiot mechanic in my life that I wouldn't even let tie my shoes let along maintain a complex piece of machinery.  There is an added layer of comfort when you understand the process and have personally done the work.
Getting close.

Doug, none of these items should go against your talent as a builder.  These are just maintenance items.  I went into it knowing there were still some little things to be done and that you weren't done completing them.  I'm really happy with the plane and everyone at the airport is very impressed with the build on it and believe me some of these old farts love to pick apart builds.
That being said I got the carbs on it today, set the idle, and balanced them out.  This thing purrs like a kitten now.  Night and day difference.  It runs up and idles super smooth now.
I like doing stuff like this because now I understand it.  Now some of the rotax guys at the airport that were contemplating sending their carbs our for rebuild want me to do it...

I don't like to disassemble them if I don't have to but I had to get to the o-ring in there.  I'm glad I did because the o-ring just crumbled off the shaft on both carbs.
It's not difficult to remove the plate and shaft.  The problem I always see is when people try to remove the peened over bolts without filing them down.  Then the threads get stripped and the shaft has to get replaced.
I installed the new bolts with the kit but didn't peen them over.  I just tightened them and applied the green penetrating loktite to both sides.  If I ever need to remove the bolts in the future I can just heat them up and remove them.  For me that stuff holds as good as welding.
I've rebuilt carbs in the past this way with no issues but this was my first set of aircraft carbs and I didn't know if this method was acceptable.
Anyway, the carbs are done and they came out perfect.  Now to reinstall them.

Last question.
The throttle butterfly has the bolts peened over and I had to file them down to remove them so I could replace the o-ring on the throttle shaft. 
I consider the method of peening over the throttle butterfly bolts to be somewhat archaic.
On the new bolts would it be acceptable to use Loctite instead?  I've always used Loctite on other carbs I've done without issue.

I thought this one looked promising.
http://www.barnstormers.com/listing_images.php?id=1075634

Thanks Doug.  I bit the bullet and bought a Rotax rebuild kit.
The smoking gun problem was on the pilot side carb.  It looked like the idle air needle was removed and when it was the o-ring stayed in the carb and when the needle was put back in it mashed the o-ring up into the orifice and plugged everything up.  Other carbs I've worked on don't have O-rings on the idle air needle.  As I got looking at the other O-rings I found that they would easily come apart if you dragged your fingernail over them.  I probably could have just cleaned out the idle circuit on that one carb and replaced the O-ring but it seems like a good time for a rebuild.
These carbs are surprisingly simple and it will give me peace of mind that they'll be rebuilt.
I'm really close.  I just had the condition inspection done and it only took me all of 5 mins to go through the squawk list he came up with.
Pretty soon I can start shopping for some amphib floats.

I think it would be a good buy for the right person.  If you have your own grass strip that you just want to buzz around I don't think you will find a 912 powered one for less that will do that.  I was looking for one that had more options that I could do some cross country flights with.  By the time I added up everything that I would have to get done to it to get it to my liking I could have just went out and bought something that was done.  Which I did.  And I'm still finding it very easy to dump more money into it.

I didn't think the socket or manifold was leaking because it ran great once it passed the idle circuit.  A socket or manifold leak would manifest at all times.
I pulled the carbs off this morning and completely dis-assembled the one that was giving me problems.  These carbs are very basic.  I was surprised.  Right off the bat I found the idle pickup jet plugged and the O-rings are disintegrating into dust.  I think a chunk of the O-ring was plugging the jet.
I'm going to rebuild the carbs myself.  These are a piece of cake compared to some others I've done.
My serial numbers aren't in the range of the ones with float problems.
I've found these rebuild kits online.  Now I'm just trying to decide whether to go all out and get the premium rebuild kit or just the basic one.
http://store.leadingedgeairfoils.com/index.php?cPath=702
 

Ok I'll give it a shot.
I think my biggest problem is that I haven't really run these motors before so I don't know how they should act.
I did notice that it really doesn't like to idle when cold.  It seems like you have to let it get good and warm before making adjustments.

Thanks Doug.  That makes perfect sense.

Thanks.
That is exactly what I did to set a baseline sync.
I do have a carbmate tool that I've used on outboards before and out of curiosity I'm going to check it to see how close it is.
What do you set your idle at?

That answers my question.  Mine was third from the bottom, second from top.  There are 4 notches starting from the top 1 2 3 4.  Mine was in 2 and I changed it to 3.
Have you ever run it in the next leaner notch like mine was (#2)?  Did you have to change yours to the #3 position?
I'm just trying to get this motor dialed in and I've never had experience with one.  I'm a pretty big gear-head and have worked on all kinds of motors over the years.  It just seems like it is a bit lean in the #2 position and the plugs look like it is running a tad on the lean side.
I just don't want to go messing with things without fully understanding what I'm doing.
I'll pull it out of the hangar later this week to run it up and sync the carbs and see if its made a difference.
 

Got it.  Right now I am just going through and changing out some of the older looking rubber and changing the fuel pump vent line to metal where it goes over the muffler.  The guy that I am sharing this hangar with is the most picky and OCD guy I have met when it comes to this stuff but he was pretty impressed with your work.
I'm also going to change out the plastic lines that come out of the gear to the caliper to metal braided AN lines mostly because there are some there and it won't cost anything.
Just little things.
I'll have to get ahold of the carb sync tool and read up on how to do it.  I've only ran it up a couple times and while it runs good the idle does seem a tad low like you said.

Here is at its new home.  I'm getting it ready for it's annual inspection.  And another picture of it's hanger mates. The Defiant, VariEze, and a Thorp T-18.

 

 
 

Very nice.
I've always been a Mustang guy.
Last fall I bought a wrecked 2010 Mustang and rebuilt it over the winter.  I wanted the newer body style but didn't want to spend the money on one.  I looked around for a while and found this one with 12k miles on it and a very easy hit to the front that didn't even deploy the airbags.  It was a pretty easy fix that got me into a newer one for not a lot of money.  It drives like a brand new one.

No.  That particular engine and prop came from a model 5 KF at my airport.  The owner decided to upgrade to a 100hp and sold Tom the old engine.
I flew the plane when it was configured as a lite squared with a 503.  That plane is built very light and should be a real performer with that engine.
It just wasn't configured the way I would want it and it would have been too much time, effort, and expense to get it there.
I looked at the plane when he was changing the engine from the 503 to the 912 but haven't seen or flown it since then.

I just moved it to it's permanent storage at Tri Cities airport KCZG.
I got talking to some guys there and there was someone willing to share a hangar.  This guy has 4 planes and just builds them but never flies them.  So I get a heated hangar with full electric and use of any tools I could ever possibly need and I will never have to fold my wings.  The rent is peanuts.  If I stopped drinking beer there would be no impact on my monthly expenses.
I would venture to say that it is probably the only kitfox in history to be sharing a hangar with a Rutan Defiant.  He has 30-years into the build and he's still not done.

 
I've flown that plane and came really close to buying it.  I think it's a great buy.
 

So I've been researching the upcoming ABS-B out mandate and I really don't think its going to apply to any of us since I don't think anyone here is going to be flying in class B or C airspace (and certainly not A).  My concern was the class D airspace that I fly in and ADS-B is not required in that.  I don't ever see a situation where I am going to be anywhere near B or C airspace.
I see a lot of people worried about the ABS-B mandate when it won't ever apply to them.
So it looks like any old mode C transponder will work for me.