RansMail #023  May 30th 2004

 

1)  Today I got the fan and belt cover off far enough to check tension, as recommended by Graham - it was very slack indeed. I can't get the cover right off due to the closeness of the firewall, but in any case I assume I'll have to move the engine forwards enough to get at the shimming arrangement to tighten the belt. Having looked at it, it seems I might get away with undoing the 4 big nuts on top of the engine, to leave the engine mount and vibration rubbers on the 'plane, then hoist the engine forwards a couple of inches. Is this correct & sufficient ?

 

2)  I did drop off the Ali cylinder head cowling (for a look at the head temp. sensor cable run) and found that it was worn into three holes underneath where it should be tightly secured to the 3 under cylinder head hexagon stand off pillars. One pillar actually came off its stud and putting it back looked 'shorter' than the other two which I see were assembled with a thick spacer on top. Do I assume the spacer ought to be equal on all three, and merely make up a similar spacer ? And does anyone have a 'fix' for the wear on the Ali ?

 

I was thinking of making three pairs of Ali discs/washers to sandwich the cover between the 13 mm hex pillars and the 3 securing bolts. It seems these pillars  also have a nylon insert in one end, for placing upwards towards the head I imagine, so it does matter which way up they go on ?

 

3)   One of the miniature Dzus type cowling fastening 'screws' has vanished. Has anyone got a spare or could direct me to a source ?

 

Mike.