With the help of my buddy Dave Berenholtz, today I started off with knocking out a carbon fiber layup to create the side filler pieces that cover the gap that is created when notching the prop spinner to allow it to be mounted over the prop.  Late last year Dave was very gracious in sharing the dimensions of his side filler pieces to give me a good starting point.

I padded his dimensions a bit just in case, and then today got busy making up one solid carbon fiber layup —using the taped prop spinner as the mold— that I’ll cut in half when it’s time to make up the side filler pieces.

To ensure the plies of carbon fiber were wetted out sufficiently, I prepregged the first 8 plies in plastic in 2-ply layups before wetting them out (I used Pro-Set epoxy here).

After applying a layer of peel ply first on the taped-up spinner, I then laid up the four 2-ply CF patches for a total of 8 plies thick.  You can see the final, top ply is the same hex-pattern CF as the spinner….

Which I laid up next.  With the final 9th ply of CF laid up (pic 1), I then peel plied the layup (pic 2) and left it to cure.

A while back while rooting around in the back seat I measured the lower hole in the GIB seatback with the idea to create a rigid cover for that hole to help keep the seat cushion from sinking into the hole.  I plan on doing the same with the CS spar access hole, which is probably more critical than this lower hole.

Regardless, I had already ID’d at least one of the pieces of carbon fiber that I was going to use for this layup, and simply set it aside for a “rainy day.”  Well, since I had a decent little bit of epoxy left over from the above spinner side piece layup, I decided to knock out this GIB lower seat hole cover layup as well.

It consists of 2 plies of CF, a smaller diameter inner ply of Lantor Soric, and then the final top ply of CF (which will actually face aft).  I’ll note that I grabbed this pic just before I published this post, after I pulled the peel ply off from around the perimeter.

Before it got dark I was also able to get another half hour of sanding in outside on the RAM air scoop.  I’ve knocked off a good bit of paint, but will hit it one more time here soon to get more of the paint off the hell hole cover and flange areas.

Another quick task I completed was grabbing a tie-down strap and bringing in a couple 45-pound weights to attach to the nose tie down point in the taxi light well.  If you look closely there are two large dumbbells peaking out of the top of the nose, which I took out immediately after grabbing this shot.  And yes, the big 45-pound weights are resting on the ground so there is no actual strain on the nose unless it decides to move upward any distance.

Tomorrow I plan on getting back onto some upper cowling tasks and get those knocked out while the engine is still installed.

The squirrel war that is…

Case in point, besides one of the light wires that I just spliced back together being re-gnawed through, my other morning greeting was just off to the side of my glass cutting table, where I found an entire ceiling light assembly on the floor.  Note the sharply cut cord.  Crazy.

So I spent another hour plus reinstalling this light and working on getting rid of squirrel nests, plus ensuring the plane was safe from any potential downed light fixtures.

Moving on… I tried my hand using the Dremel tool to create a gas cap tethering tab.  The making of the tab went well enough, it was drilling the hole in the narrow strip that went slightly awry as it slid off-center.  This is stainless steel after all.

I decided I would need to reverse my tab manufacturing process by drilling the holes first, which in my mind meant I might as well machine these darn things.  I then modeled up a new tweaked version of the gas cap tether tab and 3D printed it out to check size and configuration.

I then machined the gas cap tether tabs out of some leftover scrap 0.036″ thick 316 stainless steel from the exhaust pipe brackets.  Here they are, with some final cleanup left to do.

I then finally pulled the heat blanket and heat lamps off the top cowling and cured aft stiffener.

I also pulled the hot glued wood spacers and to my surprised delight, the top cowling didn’t move a hair!

Yes, the gap is a bit tighter than I want it to be, and I’m invoking both Wayne Blackler and the Long-EZ plans for the minimum gap: 5/16″ (0.3125″) per Wayne and 0.4″ per plans.  I’m in the middle.  Regardless, I do have a decent gap that I can work with and tweak if I have to… thus I’m calling this task complete and pressing forward!

Over the last couple of days I’ve been checking and resetting the pressure switch on the shop air compressor to get it to cut on as close 145 psi and off at 175 psi as possible.  There’s so much air in the tank that I’ve been letting the automatic moisture-removing valve cycle a bunch of times, which slowly knocks off a good 10 psi over a 24 hour period.  I then open a valve to drain the air to see when it kicks on and off.

Well, today I reset the adjustment screw rather aggressively (2 full turns) and got the darn thing to cut in at 137 psi and cut off at 167 psi… close enough.  I did a final install on the pressure switch cover and then manhandled the compressor to get it rotated and back onto the rubber pads and floor securing bolts.

I then put the big compressor closet access panel back into place and secured it with screws.  This task too is complete.

Pressing forward … one task at a time!

As I entered the shop this morning and turned on all the lights, I realized that the front of the shop was notably darker than before.  Now, I’ve had a few of my older fluorescent light bars give up the ghost (or just need new bulbs), but these lights were my “new” LED shop lights that I have daisy chained in a square pattern around an older fluorescent light bar, for the front and aft of each work bay.

Upon closer inspection I realized that this was part of a surreptitious squirrel operation, a continuation of my ongoing war with them.  I’m guessing now that ALL the ceiling insulation is gone, that they’re pissed and resorting to shenanigans as payback.

After more reconnaissance I discovered that not only did they gnaw through 4 light power cords, but also 3 of my 4 shop speaker wires as well.  And we’re not talking a single cut, these little bastards gnawed them all into smaller lengths… some only 1-2 feet long.

Well, I spent nearly an hour figuring out their terror campaign and fixing the wiring to the 4 front lights.  On 2 of the lights I left the cord dangling in midair, so it should prove harder to get access to gnaw through.  I’ll work the speaker wire a bit here and there, since I have at least one speaker for music.  Crazy.

My next op was to get the new pressure switch installed on my shop compressor.  Clearly when I built the closet for my shop compressor, I didn’t have in mind having to swap out a pressure switch.  In fact, in all my compressors that I’ve owned over the years I’ve never had to swap out a pressure switch.

To gain access to my compressor I have to take off a fairly thick hatch (to mitigate sound).  I then quickly realized that to have any chance of working on the pressure switch, which is on the left side looking in at the compressor, that I would need to unbolt 2 of the 3 legs and rotate the compressor as much counterclockwise in the closet that I could.

After a good 30 minutes of trying in vain to get the pressure switch out, I had to step back and evaluate how they assemble these compressors at the factory, because that thing was not coming out.  I realized that the entire manifold block had to come out, so I spent another half hour getting that thing unburdened by what was (ha!).  I then gave it a good cleaning.

A little interesting in sourcing this new pressure switch is that I could only find the exact replacement part number item for around $120.  That is a pressure switch that cuts on at 145 psi and cuts off at 175 psi… in theory, since my original one cut off a little over 150 psi.

During my research, I found one at Tractor Supply that cuts on at 125 psi and cuts off at 150 psi, but a comment by a user warned potential buyers that when he hooked his up it cut off around 170 psi: so test it first.  He found an adjustment screw and dialed it down.  Hmmm, if it was adjustable, and started high, then I could do the same thing in reverse.  And at half the cost, $60 was sounding much better than $120.

Well, enter our friends at Amazon.  They had the exact same unit as Tractor Supply for less than $40… sold!  Notice the faceplates above are exactly the same.  And the switch body is nearly identical except the new one has 3 extra ports, and the label is different.  Beyond that, they’re pretty much the same switch as far as I can tell.

Besides just wanting to use my shop compressor in normal fashion, I specifically wanted it back online to use during my machining ops.  Moreover, I’ll be micro-finishing the top fuselage, strakes, wings, etc. coming up here soon and I do not want to face that job without my magical “air file.”  So it was time to get this compressor back online.

I got the pressure switch installed and even though I turned the set screw to jack up the PSI kick in/out, it’s still around 150 psi.  It works though and tomorrow I’ll tweak the pressure cut in/out, reset the compressor in place, bolt it in and close up the compressor closet.

In the meantime, I ops tested it by machining the triangular gas cap securing tabs, that ensure if I for some reason forget to lock a gas cap closed that it doesn’t fly off into my prop.

Here’s a short video I made of machining those gas cap tabs.

And here are the machined tabs, if you’re not in the mood to watch the video!

I had a late dinner before knocking out my final task for the day: solder-splicing the alternator F-lead inside the hell hole.  I cut the wires to length, spliced them together using Bob Nuckoll’s method (extra wraps of wire)… sorry for the wire being the main unfocused thing in the pic.  My camera sucks!

I then soldered the wires together, covered the splice with red heat shrink and also heat shrank a label in place nearby the splice.  Now my alternator is officially wired to the front side of the plane!

And with that folks, I called it a night.

Today I got yet another task that’s long been on my list to do finally knocked out: the top cowl aft reinforcement stiffener.  Technically this is my second attempt at this, since the first reinforcement strip didn’t do I what I needed it to (which I had honestly kind of forgotten about since I set my mind on doing this new and improved version)… which with the spring back of the top cowling may be too much to ask for, but I want to try to maintain at least a 5/16″ gap between cowl and prop spinner flow guide.  It’d be a shame not to be able to use the prop spinner due to a lack of proper clearance.

Here’s another shot of my starting point, with the pour foam in place and completed last night.

I then got to work shaping the pour foam and knocking it down to about 3/8″ max height in the center, with each side beveled down to meet the cowl surface.

Here we have the final foam base of the top cowl aft cross stiffener shaped and vacuumed, ready for glass/carbon fiber, which you can see I’ve cut and is above the foam, awaiting layup.

Using Hi-temp HTR-212 resin, I then wet out the foam with micro (pic 1) before laying up the 2 plies of UNI (pic 2).

I added a strip of Lantor Soric material next (not seen), then 2 plies of carbon fiber just a bit wider than the all the rest of the plies, to secure the whole shmeal to the top cowl surface.

I then added peel ply, mainly focusing on the edge interfaces between carbon fiber plies and top cowl.

I installed the top cowl with all the CAMLOCs in place (no screw on each side) so that the top cowl would be in its final configuration during the aft cross stiffener cure.  You can see that I prepped the flow guide by hot gluing wood spacers to the surface and also clamping it to the flywheel to ensure that it’s secure during the ensuing 48 hour cure/post cure.

I then added a heat blanket on top of the cowling, just over the aft cross stiffener layup, and put a couple heat lamps underneath.  I then left it to cure… again, I’m planning on a good 48 cure to hopefully lock this top cowl position into place.

I’ll note that over the last couple of days I finally broke out the cheap toaster oven I bought late last year to allow me to heat up the wing leading edge 1/16″ plexiglass lens plates, that I bought from ACS pre-cut at 8″ x 8″ (on top of oven).

Late last year Nick Ugolini sent me his plaster of paris molds for the wing leading edge lights.  He also sent me nearly 100 pics and we had a long detailed conversation on how to create the embedded wing leading edge lights.

After looking over my personal notes, my notes on the call with Nick and some Internet research/videos, I got to work making some lenses.  The lens on the far left (below) is one that Nick sent with the forms.  The #3 smaller 5″ x 8″ lens is actually the second one I tried, the 3″ strip that I had cut off with the Fein saw being the first test piece.  It came out clear as well, and the smaller one came out pretty good too… but it wasn’t centered perfectly so it might not work for an actual final lens.

Since the corners tend to curl up a bit, I decided to leave the lenses at the 8″ x 8″ dimension that I got them from ACS.  I tried to let it heat just about 30 seconds longer to see if I could get the corners to lay down better, and lens #4 on the far right is what I got… air bubbles in the final outcome.  30 seconds less heating time and slightly curved corners is what I got on my final attempt for this go around, lens #2, second from left.

I then discovered one more final issue that really drove a decision point for me.  Although I had each lens perfectly conformed to the lens mold that Nick sent me, I noticed that the mold is significantly fatter on the bottom curve than my wing (by about 0.2″).  Nick had also sent me a piece of a wing leading edge that was cut out for making the lens light pocket, and it didn’t match my resulting lenses from the mold either.  It actually matched pretty darn close to my wing (which I would guess it should).  Hmmm?

Since the lens configuration and shape drives the exact position of the light on the leading edge, I realized that I was going to have to create the lenses in situ on each wing.  And since the top of my wings are not yet finished, I then subsequently made the call to re-sequence this task until after the wings are micro finished, epoxy wiped and sanded to final shape (but pre-paint).

Inching forward!

I started out today testing some new hydraulic crimper hex lug dies I picked up off of Ebay (technically I started out this morning with about 4 hours of long overdue mowing and yard work!).  The dies I have that came with with my hydraulic crimper have a slight gap at the edges which results in a flat “wing” on each side when I use them.  I noticed the chrome colored dies don’t seem to do that, so I took a chance on these.  And I’m glad I did.

Here I’ve terminated the alternator’s B-lead connector that attaches to the firewall-mounted BlueSea pass-thru (pic 1).  I then hit the (pre-added) red heat shrink with the heat gun to finish up the connector install (pic 2).

I then did a test install on the firewall pass-thru.  Yes, I also pre-added the white protective boot as well, although it’s looking a little rumpled here.

While I still had some daylight in the late afternoon, I took the nose hatch door and the RAM air scoop outside to knock off the old 2-part polyurethane blue boat paint in prep for some lighter (in weight) spray on paint.  Here we have the nose hatch door before (pic 1) and after (pic 2) sanding.  Yep, I have some weird low spots in there, but to be fair, I haven’t hand sanded it yet with a board.

I started losing daylight and my sandpaper was losing its grit, so I only got about half the RAM air scoop sanded.  I plan to get back to it in another few days.

I then got to work on the top cowl aft stiffener, which I marked my previous chicken scratching lines with tape (pic 1), then built the cardboard dam using the tape as a guide (pic 2).

Another shot of the finished cardboard pour foam dam.

I guess I didn’t get a shot of the pour foam in the dam, since I was in kind of hurry to get out of the shop to grab a late dinner with Jess.

But here is the pour foam after I removed the dam.

Tomorrow I’ll shape the foam and layup the reinforcement UNI, Lantor Soric and carbon fiber plies.

I had a ton of errands and chores to do today, so I was quite late getting out to the shop. That being said, I was however able to accomplish my primary goal of the day: getting the carbon fiber air induction tube mounted.

That was only possible by the delivery of this guy below (and a few more): an 18-8 stainless steel press-fit threaded standoff that I ordered from McMaster-Carr.

First off… yes, I had very much planned on making these on my own lathe, but it’s still not 100% operational in regards to CNC right now.  So I cheated and bought them as I was placing an order for other stuff.

Also, the “threaded” part of the description is not something I preferred.

So I changed that by chucking these standoffs up in the lathe and drilling out the threads.

So why exactly did I drill out the threads on these stainless steel stand-offs? (pic 1).  Because I needed to be able to seat the bolts down all the way into the standoffs, since the head-drilled bolts that I’m using all have an unthreaded shank which prevents that seating.  As you can see in pic 2, removing the threads from the standoff eliminates my bolt-seating issue.

To press-fit the standoffs into the carbon fiber air induction tube mounting flange, I drilled the 1/4″ holes out 3/8″.  I then mounted the air induction tube into place on the fuel injection servo and during the dry run fitting of each standoff, one by one, tightened each bolt to press-fit the standoff into the air induction tube flange.

Here we have all the stainless steel press-fit standoffs in place on the air induction tube mounting flange.

I then mounted the carbon fiber air induction tube by installing the mounting bolts through each press-fit standoff (and flange insert), then torqueing the bolts to 96 in-lbs before safety-wiring the pair on each side.  I will note that just as I did on the fuel injection servo mounting, I applied a very thin layer of gasket RTV to the gasket and let that tack up before installing it.

With my chores out of the way I’m hoping to get quite a bit more done tomorrow.

Pressing forward!

Today was all about knocking out more tidbit items on the engine install.  I started off by finishing up the crankcase vent tube install with some leftover tasks that I overlooked last night, with my declarative statement that I had finished said task: I first safety wired the forward 2 hose clamp screws to prevent them from loosening up.  In addition, I swapped the standard nut on the black rubber crankcase vent hose Adel clamp to an AC grade nut with washer, thus completing the securement of the Adel clamp and, in turn, the black rubber crankcase vent hose.

The next task on my list was installing a drain that pokes out of the bottom skin of the aircraft to allow nasty stuff out if and when called for… the source being either from the sniffle valve OR the mechanical fuel pump overflow.  Clearly these are sharing the same exit drain out of the aircraft, more shown on that below.

But first I had a slight configuration issue in that the bottom corner edge of the throttle cable bracket (screwdriver as pointer below) was uncomfortably close to the sniffle valve drain tube.  A decent amount of vibration could potentially see the bracket corner gnawing a hole into the tubing, so I needed to remedy that situation.

I did so by removing the Adel clamp, taking the Dremel tool and then some files to the corner to cut it down and round it over, and then reinstalled the Adel clamp on the outboard side of the throttle cable bracket/bracket.  This provided yet even a bit more clearance betwixt tube and bracket corner.

I determined how I wanted the separate drain tubes from the sniffle valve (lower left side) and mechanical fuel pump (upper right side) configured.  I then cut the drain tubes to length and attached them to a brass “Y” fitting.  I’ll note that I’ll test the separate flows of these drain tubes to ensure there’s no negative issues of running 2 tubes into one exit drain.

After determining where I wanted the external drain tube to poke through the bottom skin, I taped the external surface and then drilled a small pilot hole from the inside out.  I then drilled a 1/4″ hole up into the engine compartment (just aft of the firewall) using the small pilot hole as a guide (sorry for the pics… my camera was being a PITA).

Here’s the 1/4″ hole drilled into the external bottom skin.

I then cut a length of 1/4″ aluminum tubing, bent it slightly for clearance with the SCAT tubing, prepped it, and then added wet micro to the external surface as I slid it up into position.  I added a few extra drops of epoxy to the tiny bit of wet micro I had in the cup and threw in a good bit of flox, but still wanted it fairly wet for strength…

I then dabbed the wet flox around the base of the tube on the inside.

Before I mixed up the epoxy (Pro-Set) I cut out 3 small patches of carbon fiber to finalize the divot fills on the left side bottom cowling (2 plies top, 1 bottom).  After I laid up the CF patches I of course peel plied the layups.  Again, this is the final divot filling or patch action that I plan on doing on the bottom cowling.

Tomorrow I’ll most likely move onto the upper cowling and work to get that completely dialed in and ready for micro and paint.

Today and yesterday were all about the exhaust pipes, EGT probes and crankcase vent tube final installs.  I did a final check through all my notes and also some online stuff to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.  This included a chat with GRT Avionics on the EGT probes installation.  Moreover, I needed some 5/16″ star washers that I didn’t have on hand, but was able to get from a fellow EAA homebuilder that just finished a VANs RV-10.

With star washers in hand I got to work.  In addition to mounting the exhaust pipes, starting on the left side, I also did the final install on the EGT probes, including safety wiring the probes-securing hose clamps.

Here we have the engine right side —the #2 cylinder exhaust pipe having just been installed— while I’m in the process of finalizing the EGT probe install/safety wiring on the #4 cylinder exhaust pipe before I do its final install.

Also note that the hose clamp securing the black rubber crankcase vent tube to the aluminum tube has been replaced with safety wire securing the two together… having used the ClampTite tool to get that done.

Here we have the right side exhaust pipes, EGT probes and crankcase vent tube all installed for the final time (for now at least… ha!).  I marked the exhaust pipe mounting nuts with orange torque seal as an inventory tool to identify what engine hardware has been torqued prior to engine first start.  I am fully aware that the heat of the pipes will probably burn it off in no time flat.

Since we’re discussing exhaust pipes, last night I drew up some initial exhaust pipe end caps up in CAD to kick off the design process on making breathable desiccant inserts to both keep any wannabe nesting bugs or critters out while also drying any air out making its way towards the cylinders.

Speaking of which, I made a point to examine the exhaust ports prior to installing the exhaust pipes, and all the valves, ports, etc. looked very clean and shiny.  Nothing out of order!

I plan to continue to press forward tomorrow, and since I’m running out of engine components to install I’ll be transitioning more to final cowl work before I pull the engine here in the not-too-distant future.

Before heading out the shop I broke out the manual for the Silver Hawk fuel injection servo to ensure that I got the final configuration and torque values correct for both the throttle and mixture lever nuts that went back on or were replaced during the repositioning of those levers.

But my first task out in the shop was to get some composites curing… carbon fiber specifically.  I noted when I did my thorough sanding of the bottom cowling that I had some small low spots on the outboard left side.  Again, instead of relying on thicker micro fills I’m adding a small ply of CF into each of those depressions.

In addition, when trimming the added carbon fiber plies during the bottom cowling rebuild I accidentally cut through the skin with my Fein saw.  So today I filled that cut with 3 thicker strands (left over from my West CF UNI tape) of carbon fiber to fill the gouge.  I then peel plied all the filler patches and set the bottom cowling off to the side to cure.

Back on the Silver Hawk fuel injection servo: after torqueing both mixture and throttle lever nuts to final value as per the manual, I then reinstalled a new cotter pin on the castellated nut on the throttle lever.  I then torque sealed all the mounting, mixture lever and throttle lever nuts.

I also connected and torqued the -4 hose that connects the fuel injection servo to the fuel distribution spider on the topside of the engine.  Once threaded on and torqued, and the fuel servo -4 fitting nut torqued as well, I then added torque seal to those.

In the forward left corner of the engine compartment, I got to work securing the left rudder cable CS-spar-mounted cable guide to the oil cooler bracket via an Adel clamp. I started by marking the position of the Adel clamp post.  I then drilled a 3/16″ hole at the mark.

I removed the oil cooler angled aluminum mounting bracket and mounted a K1000-3 platenut on the oil cooler flange.

I remounted the oil cooler bracket to the oil cooler permanently using AN3 bolts and AC grade nuts, before adding a spacer to set and secure the position of the left rudder cable guide via an Adel clamp.

My goal tomorrow is to do the final install of the exhaust pipes, so in leaning forward and prep for that job I removed the left side exhaust pipes.

It was getting quite late (seems to be a theme) so I didn’t tackle removing the right side exhaust pipes and crankcase vent tube, but will get that knocked out along with final pipe install tomorrow.

I got a late start on the build today, and since it was very late in the afternoon —and thus cooler— I took the opportunity to sand on the bottom cowling for about 45 minutes.  I was mostly knocking off the old blue paint, but also hit the new added carbon fiber panels fairly aggressively to knock down any egregious high spots and smooth out the surface for upcoming micro.

I then got to work on the final install of the alternator cable/wire and starter cable Adel clamps, which secure all this to the throttle cable bracket on the right side of the engine.  I needed a slightly longer AN3 bolt, a thin washer and a 10-32 star washer for the standard jam nut I’m using to secure the alternator B-lead/F-lead pair in the upper Adel clamp.  These will stay attached here on the motor and get disconnected at the firewall when/if I need to remove the engine.

On the remaining threads of the bolt protruding below the jam nut, I then secured the big yellow starter cable in an Adel clamp using a temporary jam nut.  For final engine install I’ll swap out the jam nut for an A/C grade locknut (I have to disconnect the starter cable and run it through the firewall covering when it is installed).

In addition, you can see that I covered a good bit of the starter cable with a heat shrink anti-chaffing sleeve.  I also labeled the starter cable.  After I install the firewall I’ll do the final trimming of this cable to length and crimp a terminal connector onto the end of it to mount to the starter stud.

I had also planned on getting the fuel injection servo officially installed and also the left side rudder cable guide secured to the oil cooler mounting flange with an Adel clamp, spacer and K1000-3 platenut. I completed the former, but not the latter.

In my attempt to drill safety wire holes into the 5/16″ nuts my efforts were rewarded by nothing more than a few broken bits.  And I was using higher end bits to try to punch through the tougher A/C-grade (or automotive grade 8) nuts.  Plain and simple: no joy here.  My guess is that this device is only for medium to lower grade hardware.

My backup plan from I’m guessing well over a year ago was to use these steel sleeves around the 5/16″ nuts that provide safety wire holes.  Once again I spent nearly half an hour in the “find me if you can” game since at some past shop flooding they had gotten wet and had some surface rust (just remembering this now).  They were over by my lathe where I had taken them post-flood to drench the baggy of them in oil.  That was forever ago, and I had to hunt them down tonight to use them.

I know Lycoming prefers star washers in mounting components, and I do have 1/4″ and 3/16″ star washers on hand, but no 5/16″.  I also did a quick check online and some pics I have of these Silver Hawk fuel injection servos bolted in place, and most builders used the star washers.  I do have 5/16″ split lock washers on hand so I simply used those instead, since the critical element in this endeavor is torqueing these nuts to the proper value (204 in-lbs according to Lycoming).

Before the final servo install, I removed it, cleaned each face with Acetone and applied a very thin layer of Permatex gasket RTV to the gasket.  I let the gasket RTV tack up for about 5 minutes before installing the fuel injection servo back onto the cold air induction plenum.

I only used the safety wire sleeves on the top nuts, while using just a standard washer and split lock washer on the bottom studs.  I then torqued them to value… well, the bottom ones anyway.  There was no getting a torque wrench up on the top nuts so I just, once again, followed the lead of my RV-building brethren and ensured the top nuts were on good and tight.  That being said, I still used a cross pattern while tightening the bolts.  I then safety wired across the two top nuts.

I’ll note that I safety wired the two top nuts starting on the right and going left, because I didn’t want the tail of the safety wire to come anywhere close to the pivoting throttle lever arm.

Yes, another task taking at least twice as long as I planned for, and it was quite late by the time I finished up.  Tomorrow I’ll apply orange torque seal to these nuts, and get that left side rudder cable guide secured to the oil cooler mounting flange!

Pressing forward.