Cowl Fasteners for C-182 Need Replaced

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JoseCuervo

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JoseCuervo
The fasteners on the cowl of the 182 need replaced, as they look ugly with surface rust on the outside. I believe there are Stainless Steel ones available.


I have heard there are complete kits available, but not sure which ones I need.

Anybody know the name of the actual fasteners, or, even better, the correct part numbers at Spruce or some other place that will have them so I can order them in?

Also, I am assuming this is easy enough for me to swap them out. And, will I need an AP to sign off? (it is coming due for annual this month, so, either way, not a big deal.)

Thanks,
 
One of the best purchases you can make for yourself and your airplane is a parts/maintenance manual.
 
We recently got a complete set for our C182P. I'll PM you the email of our club maintenance officer so you can ask him for source and part numbers.
 
Timbeck2 said:
One of the best purchases you can make for yourself and your airplane is a parts/maintenance manual.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

I was hoping somebody on the forum knew what they were called and/or a part number.
 
Jose,

It might also help if you defined the year. There's a bit of a difference between a 1956 182 and a 2010 182.
 
Lots of variability on the model, as pointed out... I purchased some from Aircraft Spruce, but the ones on my oil door were quite hard to find (unless you wanted to buy them for $50/ea from Cessna). I finally found www.milspecproducts.com, and they had the hard to find oil door fasteners for my Skyhawk, and for about 20% of OEM prices.
 
It's not simply a huge amount of sheetmetal screws like my '58 is?
 
After messing with thousands of camlocs at work I've come to appreciate the southcos on my airplane, which don't have a pin that eventually falls out.

 
Include the cost of an installation tool when you buy fancy fasteners.
 
The old airplanes used sheet metal screws and held the cowl rigid. Those old cowls fared better than the newer shock-mounted cowls. The shock mounts let the cowl move around against the retaining fastener, which wallows out the hole in the cowling. Sheet metal screws held it tight to the firewall and the friction created usually prevented wallowing-out.

Southcos are bad for wallowing out the holes, and the steel plate in the shockmount wears out and lets the screw turn too far and pop back out. The rubber of the shockmount delaminates from the aluminum plate; it's something to check whenever the cowl is off.

Camlocks are sturdier, but there are different lengths in any cowl, to allow for varying thickness of the cowling at different places. The parts manual is handy there. An aftermarket kit should have the right bits in it.

I hope Skybolt has their stuff sorted out. They've been selling an STC'd kit to replace Southcos on some airplanes, and I had endless trouble with those kits. The shockmount, last I saw, was on its third iteration, the previous two being troublesome. Some would delaminate, some would fall apart, some wouldn't adjust and stay adjusted. Some of the fasteners would wallow out their holes in the cowl.

Someone should come out with a kit to put nutplates and machine screws on the firewall brackets and cowl seams. It takes longer, but the screws and nutplates are WAY cheaper than the quarter-turn stuff and holding the cowl solidly makes it last longer. American Champion and others still build airplanes that way.
 
Dan Thomas said:
The old airplanes used sheet metal screws and held the cowl rigid. Those old cowls fared better than the newer shock-mounted cowls. The shock mounts let the cowl move around against the retaining fastener, which wallows out the hole in the cowling. Sheet metal screws held it tight to the firewall and the friction created usually prevented wallowing-out.

Southcos are bad for wallowing out the holes, and the steel plate in the shockmount wears out and lets the screw turn too far and pop back out. The rubber of the shockmount delaminates from the aluminum plate; it's something to check whenever the cowl is off.

Camlocks are sturdier, but there are different lengths in any cowl, to allow for varying thickness of the cowling at different places. The parts manual is handy there. An aftermarket kit should have the right bits in it.

I hope Skybolt has their stuff sorted out. They've been selling an STC'd kit to replace Southcos on some airplanes, and I had endless trouble with those kits. The shockmount, last I saw, was on its third iteration, the previous two being troublesome. Some would delaminate, some would fall apart, some wouldn't adjust and stay adjusted. Some of the fasteners would wallow out their holes in the cowl.

Someone should come out with a kit to put nutplates and machine screws on the firewall brackets and cowl seams. It takes longer, but the screws and nutplates are WAY cheaper than the quarter-turn stuff and holding the cowl solidly makes it last longer. American Champion and others still build airplanes that way.
Click to expand...

The first time a guy strips a stainless screw (in a nutplate) they'll curse, but I agree that the newer stuff didn't really solve anything.

I decided to take the retaining washer out of my southcos so they get removed completely when I pull the cowl. I just punched a bunch of holes in a cardboard box to hold all the fasteners in the appropriate pattern so they get reinstalled in the correct holes every time. I also keep a extra plastic southco washers and fasteners to add/replace when they get loose. Its been really painless the last 5 years.
 
I recently replaced all of the southco fasteners (and the two a-loc fasteners in the oil door) as well as replaced all of the riveted-in receptacles on my cowl. Believe it or not, all of the southcos were replaced and all the sizes matched what the factory said they should be. The southco kit from ACS is pretty cheap, and the stuff from milspechardware was reasonable. I replace probably 3 of the rubber mounts at each annual. Milspechardware has a new pma'd adjustable shock mount that is actually cheaper than OEM.
 
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