Wednesday 27 May 2015

Week 198 - Upholstery, Spinner, EGT probes

Hours to date: 1822.25

Another slack week as I was away in Poland for a wedding.

Still, some progress has been made.

The upholstery is back and I'm very pleased with the way it looks. Orange stitching has been added and the zip on the side pocket now goes the right way. Also there is a toggle and drawstring on the stick gaiter.

I've stuck the headrest pad to the headrest itself with contact cement and fitted the side pocket with those composite spiky fasteners embedded into the safety cell side and then countersunk washers with Allen head screws - looks pretty neat and gives a large area to grip the leather with. The other two cushions are fixed with Velcro so they can be removed easily.

Onto the EGT probes.

These should be fitted 3 inches down from the exhaust exit point and point away from the engine itself - this is in case if one were to fail a hot stream of exhaust gas would not burn into the engine itself. If I could do the job again then I would most likely run the cylinder number 4 probe the same as Cylinder number 3 - ie: backwards. Brand new cobalt drill bits of 3.5mm did the trick nicely to drill the holes - as you are drilling into stainless steel here, go slow so it doesn't get too hot and use a new bit that is sharp. I cut off the excess hose clamp with the Dremel. I'll figure out exact routing and fixing of the thermocouple wires later. Note that you must not shorten the wires at all as this would give a different reading per cylinder.

Onto the spinner.

Going slow, slow, slow here. I really am going like a snail on this job as you can't really fix things easily if you cut too much off. I used the usual method of a cardboard template to get a rough shape. Cut well within the line and then go slowly backwards and forwards fitting and trimming it until things are as they should be.

I'm fixing the spinner to the back plate with the standard Vans method of countersunk Tinnerman washers and coarse thread screws. They give a nearly flush final effect and I'll get them painted to match the spinner too.

My method for centering the spinner (see video below) was to use a turntable I had that is normally used to display a model motorbike. I centered the prop and back plate on it then hung a plum bob from the roof and watched it from two opposing angles to see where it was out of center. A small adjustment here and there and I've got it tracking pretty much spot on now.






EGT probe

Fixed to the left bank

And the right

Template for spinner cutout.

Tinnerman washer and countersunk screw with sprung fastener

Gives a nearly flush final effect.

Turntable method of centering spinner.


Video below - this is one stage before it was centered so it is still a bit out of center in this video.
 






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