4 Sierra Tango Building and flying Van's RV-7 N834ST
Wings

March 26, 2006

9 hours logged

Today was the day to comply with Van’s latest service bulletin regarding the fuel pick ups in the fuel tanks. I wasn’t looking forward to doing this really because I knew that it could be a bit messy what with all the Proseal going on.

First I had to get the covers off! It was such a shame really, because I’d just got the tanks sealed up when the service bulletin came out. Just my luck. I removed the screws, and started to prise the covers off. They came off OK. I cleaned them up with acetone, and drilled a small hole in each fitting nut for the safety wire. I safety wired the fuel pick up on, and then it was a matter of mixing up the Proseal and daubing it on everything before assembling it all again.

With the wings on, it’s a bit of a squeeze to get it in, but it worked out alright. At least that’s done and out of the way now. Service bulletin complied with.

Here’s the left side, showing the safety wire.

Doing this stuff took up nearly my whole day. I don’t know if I’m a bit slow or what. Maybe it’s all the cups of tea I’m drinking?!

Now that that’s done, I can get on and plumb the fuel lines for good. I received the unions I needed from Spruce to complete this task the other week. I’m glad I went this route, because it made fitting all this together so much easier. I had to make one of the tubes twice though, because I was dumb and forgot to put the sleeve and nut on before I went and flared the tube. Doh! I’m good at doing this!

Here’s the tank access plate back in situ with the fuel line running to it.

And the inside of the plane. You can see the fitting. This allowed me to get the bends much more precisely positioned. Before, it was horrific through here. The tubes looked terrible.

Next weeks task is to make the vent lines between the tank and the fuselage. Then, I’m ready to take some fuel onboard!

I also painted the landing and taxi light mounts today. I still need one more coat to finish them off nicely though. Next week, I should be able to assemble them into the plane. Maybe I can come by one evening when it’s dark to align them too!