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I am currently in the process of updateing N147RB and making it airworthy once again after sitting in Hangers and being shuffled from owner to owner since the mid '80's. Its no small job, but I feel much faster than building a new BD-4 from scratch - not to meantion SIGNIFICANTLY less expensive! :-)
State of Plane at Purchase
 Plane in storage in an old hanger at Flying Cloud (FCM).
 Floor mount Stick Controls with adjustable front Cessna seats
 Interior needs to be completely redone, needs new windshield & 2 side windows
 Wade said he and Richard resealed and pressure tested the wing fuel tanks with ProSeal
 Wade said he sprayed the engine with “LSD” for storage
 Richard and Wade were never able to get engine to start - no spark
 Prop from Prince Aircraft Company (PAC) has never flown. Was new in box when Richard bought the plane.
 Plane has the larger rudder - Wade and Richard added rudder trim
 New Spinner that Wade and Richard built.
 Wade has flaps off for reinforcement per a design update
 Has full IFR Panel, but no redundancy. Not sure if old EdoAir Nav/Com and Narco 150 Transponder work. Needs GPS. Wade said he had tested the Transponder and it worked.
 No Wheel Pants - Wade sold them
 No paint. It was removed at some prior time. Filler putty looks like it had been added to prep for new paint, but is flaking loose in a few places.
Renovation Log
Date
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Hours
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Description
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12/_/02
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3
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Inspected plane, fixed wiring problem on electric igntion modules.
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12/_/02
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3
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Investigated starter problem. The starter relay would just click. Got a new battery. Still just clicked. Tried to jump from my truck. Still just clicked. Replaced with new starter, still just clicked. Then realized there had been a short to the mouting bracket. Tried the old starter again and it still worked but was drawing too much amperage so I decided to replace anyway. First new starter I got from auto parts store fit redrive mounting but was slight longer than old one (new model) and didn't work with addition support brackets that had been attached to the engine so I took it back and was able to get the older, shorter style.
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12/_/02
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1
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Had plane and engine looked over by ___ EAA Technical Councilor from local EAA Chapter.
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12/_/02
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.5
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Drove down to Airlake to get a full box of books, newsletters, the original plans from Wade Fennensent (A&P who had been working with Dick on the plane)
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12/_/02
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3
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Without additional starter braket that was causing short problems, I was able to turn the engine over and got it to run for a few seconds at a time by dripping small amounts of fuel directly into the carb manually. Scott Eggert and Jill Javor helped. Afterwards finished mouting the new starter with additional engine support bracket.
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12/_/02
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1
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Purchased N147RB and 6 ton auto trailer from Richard McCoy. Needed bigger hitch on my truck for trailer so Dick hauled it to my house for me - Thanks Dick!
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12/_/02
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1.5
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Removed brake master and wheel cylindars. Brought wings home to my garage to work on them with Scott's help.
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1/_/03
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2.5
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Wade brought me the flaps and other misc. parts he still had had at home. Disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled brake cylindars.
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1/19/03
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3
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Since my Dragonfly arrived 3 days ago and there was no room in the hanger for both planes, my family drove up and helped me move plane and wings by trailer from hanger at FCM to workshop on family farm near Albany, MN
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2/7, 8, & 9/03
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24
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Unloaded plane from trailer and got a heater hooked up in new workshop. Hung wings back on center spars, and cleaned and rust protected folding wing hinges. Pulled the wires for lights, pito tube heat and pito tube hose back through wing spars. Tried to start engine again after reconnecting all starter support backets, etc. However, got only strange clicking from selenoid. After trying many different things, I found the additional starter motor support backet attached to the engine was grounding out to the power lead again! DUH! Finally was able to try to start engine again, by dripping fuel directly in carb. However it only ran for short bursts, so I decided I should clean and rebuild carb so I removed it.
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Me after pulling the prop off. When it storage, at one time someone left it sitting in a vertical position instead of a proper horizontal one, and mosture wicked to the bottom blade. The mosture caused some of the paint to flake off the leading edge. I talked to Lonnie Price, who said the prop is probally fine as long as I let it dry out and keep horizontal, but that the paint surface should be touched up and sealed to prevent future damage.
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My younger brother, Ben and I imaging blue skys!
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My Narco transponder tray says on the side "Narco AT50A / 150 TSO Tray" and the Transponder says its
a Narco AT50A however the plug on the back of the transponder is a circuit board type and obviously won't fit into the long white plug displayed here at the back. A problem to figure out! Appended 2/22/02: After talking to a Narco dealer for a good 30 minutes describing the problem we were finally able to determine the plug had been wired backwards. I got the wiring diagram from Narco's website and flipped all the connections end for end. Now the transponder fit in the tray!
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Here's another mystery... the wires coming from the Whelen strobe unit (mounted on the firewall) are Male 4-prog type plugs (the lower one), but the actual light connectors for the wing tips are also Male but 3 prog, something just is just not original, must find an appropriate adapter or re-wire! :-) Maybe I will check Radio Shack or contact Whelen.
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2/19/03
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2
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Got rebuild kit from Red Rooster for the Holley 4412 carb. Disassembled, but found no problems other than the float bowl valve was a bit sticky so I replaced it.
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 2/22 & 23/03
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14
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Reinstalled the carb on engine. Adjusted the float boal level and turned the needles on the sides of the carb out 1 turn from bottoming. Where should these be set? Was able to get the engine to start (though difficult) and I had to keep almost 1/3 or better throttle or it wouldn't run. Will not idle. After just about 20 seconds of running, before I was able to start adjusting and checking things out the wrappings around the exhaust pipes started smoking significantly. Ben said there were flames shooting out the ends of the exhaust pipes. So I shut it down and opened the door (the smoke fumes from the exhaust pipes filled the shop). Decided I will need to do more fine tuning first like setting the timing. Dad also helped me fabricate a wing rack so the wings could be stored folded. See picutures and comments below. I have questions on a number of items.
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Here's the Exhaust pipes wrapped in something (asbestos?) that looks almost like fiberglass. What is this? Is it supposed to smoke alot initially?
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Which is the indicator to use for timing - the lower circle that looks like a 'sight' or the triangular pointer?
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The right wing has a fuel gage still in it, however the left is just an empty hole. Does anyone know what type of fuel gage I need to get? It was probally whatever was originally supplied in the kit from Bede as all the other component seem quite original.
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I ordered a new 1/2" DPDT white switch from Wicks to replace an old bad one for the Radio. However what I recieved did not have threaded screw connections like the original and doesn't fit the panel. I need to keep looking to find a better fit.
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Anyone familar especially with the Blanton Ford conversions? The Alternator (higher unit pictured) was remouted solid per some comments I read of Blanton's somewhere. But there is also an vacum pump added (lower unit picutured that functions as the belt tightener. To keep the belt taunt, a cable is attached to the vacum pump which runs up to the alternator bracket. By tightening this cable, the tension on the belt is increased. Is this a good or even reasonable solution? The crankshaft pully and water pump pulleys are connected by a second belt, so one could loose the alternator an vacum and keep running off the battery for some time. Thoughts anyone?
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There are 4 pressure line-like connectors that come off the carb. One in lower back. One on lower left side (pictured), one smaller and higher on left side of carb (pictured) and one on the lower front of the carb (in picture below). All are just closed off but I believe one is supposed to be attached to the vacum advance on the distributor. Which? Also isn't the distributor cap supposed to have an o-ring or something to seal it internally, now it just fits on loosely with some clips and a hard plastic to plastic fit?
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I would also like someone to provide a voice of expirence if my coolant system is plumbed correctly. Picture 1 shows the aluminum racing radiator mounted under the engine. A line runs from the top of the engine block outlet just behind the carb down to the left (near side pictured) of the radiator.
The main line then runs up from the right side of the radiator, above the oil filter and back to the water pump (picture 2). Also seen pictured, from this main line, 2 smaller (3/4") lines branch off the main - one up to the header reserve tank (pictured top blue) and the other to the right (inlet?) side of the oil-coolant heat transfer device mounted beneith the oil filter. The outlet from the oil heat transfer unit runs up to a point in the block just before the water pump. Another 3/4" outlet from the water pump is just blocked with a wood plug.
From the other side of the coolant header tank, another line runs down to the water pump. (picture 3)
Can anyone tell me if this is plumbed correctly or offer insight? Reading through Blanton's docs, it sounds like there should not be 2 lines running up to the coolent header tank (which has a 22lbs racing cap), but only one?
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Finally, Blanton talks about venting the front of the heads so that air doesn't get trapped in the coolant passages of the heads - especially for a taildragger (which mine is). I believe that is what these lines picutured on the left are. They run back, are tee'd together and the run back to the top of the coolant header tank. Blanton had said to run them into a low pressure spot on the water pump. Will they work as they are installed here?
Thanks to anyone and all that can provide thoughts and comments in response to these questions! :-)
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March '03
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8
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Built a wing rack with my Father's help, tried to pump up brakes, but seems to be a lot of resistance. Need a better oil pump can. Checked Timing on engine and verified it was 12 degees advance. Also checked compression, all cylinders within 15 lbs of each other though all were a bit low, probably due to combination of corrosion and never having been run since rebuild. I'm guessing will improve as surfaces wear in. Removed Prop for refinishing.
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April '03
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8
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Started flap modification to add a hinge point to the middle of the flaps. Evaluated electrical system, traced all circuit breakers and labeled. Added new starter switch.
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5/31/03
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10
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New Prop paint lightly sanded, rehung on engine. Cooling system replumbed. Discovered family broke off composite antenna while in storage on the farm. Will need a new one or rebuild maybe.
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 6/7-9/03
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12
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Finished Replumbing cooling system, flushed and ran engine for 10 plus minutes, idled much better once warmed up. Cooling seemed OK at least up through 10 to 12 minutes but then there was no cowling on it. Coolant pressure seemed good.
Finished up new upgraded center hinge point on Flaps and added hing point to one wing, the other needs some fiberglass work yet to complete. The exhaust pipes have stopped their smoking after apparently it was the first time the engine had been run when I ran it in Feb.
Was able to get the Intercom to work, at least for a while, and Nav / Com and Transponder at least tuned on, though the Radio seemed to keep shutting off after a few minutes being on. Turning off and back on brought it back to life. May need some work, but any life in the old Narco beast is a good sign! Water temp gage not wired correctly, Oil Temp is actually Water temp, actual oil temp not working. Oil Pressure and voltage were good. Made 2 Aeroquip hoses to correct length for one wing tank, need 2 more lines for the other side as well as 2 fuel senders.
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