I didn’t get nearly the shop work I was looking to get accomplished knocked out as planned, but I got a few other key things finished.

I started out this morning by pulling the front pair of clecos on the aft right outboard baffle wall and replacing those with rivets.  I’m leaving the very aft cleco in place since I’ll use that hole for mounting the baffle seal reinforcement strip.

Then I did the same thing on the left side.  Since the aft baffle shelf is narrower, I only have one rivet on this side.

Jess is starting back bartending again 2-3 times a week (for both EZ money and knowing that she’s going to be a “build widow” for the next few months!) and tonight she was going to work… so I ran over to Beaufort to meet her for lunch on the waterfront since I wouldn’t see much of her today.  An awesome view of the water that never gets old for me.

We then ran to the hangar for a bit and she helped me unpack and mount an end locker to my roll around tool cart.

Upon returning back home my Aircraft Spruce order had been delivered, of which contained a couple different lengths of 3/8″ bolts to replace the too-long pivot bolt on the B&C alternator.  This bolt also secures the cross link brace between the alternator and the starter.

Looking at the B&C L40 Alternator install manual I didn’t see any reference or diagram showing which direction this bolt was installed (or if it matters?) nor did I have any torque spec for the bolt securing the cross link brace to starter.  So I gave B&C a call.

B&C answered my questions, stating that they prefer the pivot bolt head to be on the same side as the alternator pulley.  TJ also stated the cross link brace isn’t required if the alternator is boss mounted (yeah, tell that to the mob at Rough River!!) and B&C didn’t have a torque spec for that bolt.  I told him that A) I bought the cross link brace and have it in hand, B) I have a big hole in the baffling where it was mounting into, and C) note “mob” reference above.  And no one is knocking this community off of our old wives’ tales!  He copied what I was saying and suggested I use Lycoming’s torque specs for a 5/16″ bolt (17 Ft-lbs).

I’ll note that this task would have been a nothing-burger if I had done it BEFORE tensioning the alternator belt.  Moreover, after measuring everything out, I determined that I could use the shorter (less weight) of my new bolts, the AN6-41A, but after install it turned out to be just a hair too short.  Swapping back out to the AN6-42A would have made for a good comedy short video, if in fact it were truly a short enough video!

Let’s just say it took WAY longer than it should have to swap this bolt out and get it installed, mainly due to alternator to boss alignment, but also the fiddly washers on the aft side… but as is always the case on these builds, perseverance paid off.

I then received a call from my good friend Greg, who was there at the very beginning when I decided to build this Long-EZ.  Before I started building I made up a wood mockup of the fuselage to determine if the stock cockpit width would be ok, and while I was out he actually climbed into the back seat of the mockup… and got stuck in there since there was no real strength to the mockup to support him climbing back out.  He essentially had to roll over sideways like a turtle to egress.  It made for a good story.

Before I headed back out to the shop I saw a note on the COBA forum from Marc Z. stating a guy in NC had a Cozy III fuselage and a bunch of Rutan fiberglass that belonged to his father-in-law who had passed away not too long ago.  He was either taking it all to the dump or giving it to a Canardian in need (that would be me in this story).  I’ll be heading inland Friday to pick up the goods!

Thus, after phone calls and collaborations, I was just heading back out to the shop when Jess called and said she was done for the night.  So unlike a normal build evening, I actually had dinner at a reasonable hour.  I’ll get to more baffle gooping tomorrow.

Inching forward.