I returned to the hangar this morning and put
together the wheel pant assemblies as requested by Dave Wissinger. That purpose is to allow them to layout the
colors on the pants. I assembled the
front pant and then the main gear pants.
After assembling the pants I decided to work
on the tension on the nose wheel fork.
The original drawings called out for the force to turn the front fork
should be 28 lbs. I checked my front
fork by using my hydraulic jack to lift the nose wheel off of the floor. I put a 1x4 under the fuselage at the step
bulkhead and lifted the nose wheel about 1" off of the slab. Using my digital fish scale I tested the
pulling force. It turned out to be
around 32 lbs. I also realized I had not
drilled the nose wheel strut to install the cotter pin on the castle nut. I loosed the nut and checked the pulling
force. I finally got the force to
between 18-20 lbs as directed by the new plans.
I drilled the strut and installed the cotter pin. I also checked the tire pressure. According to the new information the pressure
should be 22 psi. I reduced the pressure
from 25 psi to 22 psi.
I went to Pep Boys and purchased a small
funnel. Using the funnel I put Evans
coolant in the cooling system. I topped
of the coolant reservoir and put coolant in the expansion tank. I used about 3 quarts of coolant. Next I put oil in the engine. I disconnected the oil return line and pulled
it out and dropped it down to an oil container below the engine. I went to AutoZone and purchased some rubber
caps and band clamps to seal the fitting on top of the tank. I used a little bit of plumbing I used when pressure
testing the fuel system to put some air pressure in the tank. I removed a spark plug from each
cylinder. I filled the tank with oil,
introduced some pressure and turned on the SkyView. It took about 25-30 turns of the prop until
the oil pressure gauge began to register pressure. As I turned the prop I was able to develop 15
psi on the oil pressure gauge. I thought
that was pretty good. I put everything back together and burped the
tank. I checked the oil and it was a
little below the min mark on the dip stick. I added enough oil to raise the level to just
below the max mark on the stick. I am
getting closer to first engine start.
