These are so easy to work on

bnt83

bnt83

Final Approach
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Brian
pop out the aft bech seat and two seat stops then slide the front seats aft. Anything under the panel is just cake to access.

 
I have to concur, even working on the rudder pedals and servicing the brake reservoirs , you just sit on a creeper seat and reach in there. No contortions or lying on seat rails required.
 
Silvaire said:
I have to concur, even working on the rudder pedals and servicing the brake reservoirs , you just sit on a creeper seat and reach in there. No contortions or lying on seat rails required.
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With the carpet in place, the seat rails disappear and laying on them is comfortable. The seat belt attachment lungs do stick up higher tho.
 
I used to have one (an RG), and I concur, when talking about inside the fuselage (relative to other airplanes). Under the cowling, though, it is "same ol', same ol': HOURS to replace an alternator, etc.

Wells
 
Even under the cowl isn't that bad. There is practically no clearance between the firewall and the engine accessories on the Grumman series. Your RG probably had a dual mag I take it. And with the fuel injection system in there on top of the prop governor I'm sure the RG wasn't all that pleasant.
 
One thing about a 177RG js that if you set the wing jacks up so they will be high enough o do a gear swing they won' fit under the wing so you have drive or drag the plane onto some 2x6's to get started.
 
#1 Removing the Slick mags and installing OH Bendix mags
#2 New Ignition harnesses
#3 All new spark plugs
#4 All new oil & fuel hoses
#5 New fuel pump
#6 New throttle cable
#7 Replacing P-lead wiring, starter contactor "control" wire (the 18 gauge one to the ignition switch) and the entire alternator harness and associated adel clamps.Replacing essentially all the factory wiring FWF to the termination aft of the firewall, except the heavy cable to the starter contactor and the starter.
#8 Adels on the starter cable
#9 Oil cooler overhaul

The cowling doesn't fit well making it pretty difficult to R&R so I'm gonna check all those wonderful southco fasteners and the rubber cowl mounts alignments and maybe adjust the shims under them.

I dont care for the wadded up EGT/CHT harness but....

 
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Silvaire said:
One thing about a 177RG js that if you set the wing jacks up so they will be high enough o do a gear swing they won' fit under the wing so you have drive or drag the plane onto some 2x6's to get started.
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:yikes:
 
Doing this all with one hand and my hook BTW. Converting to dual impulses means removing the ground strap at the mag switch. This will allow the right magneto hot while the switch is in the "start" position.

While I'm in here, replacing P-leads (wiring from the switch to the mags) and the wire to the starter contactor.








 
Silvaire said:
One thing about a 177RG js that if you set the wing jacks up so they will be high enough o do a gear swing they won' fit under the wing so you have drive or drag the plane onto some 2x6's to get started.
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I have actually found it easier to raise the wing by hand. The first is cake, the second takes effort (and a helper) but I HATE dragging the plane up onto blocks as I am always afraid of the plane rolling off and into something. Solo I have had to lift one wing, get it on the jack, raise it slightly, put a block under the wheel, remove the jack then go lift the other wing to get the jack under it.
 
I ran out of clear heat shrink so the two terminals in the background got black heat shrink like the one shown. The two in the center (red & blue) are grounds and no heat shrink applied.

I still need to reassemble the switch.

 
Keep in mind this airplane only has 1,400 total time on it but the 45 year old wire forward of the firewall has had it. Some of this was preventable like the damaged alternator output (bus feeder) cable. It just makes sense to replace everything FWF through the firewall back to the switch or bus termination. Not sure what an avionics shop would charge but I'm probably going to have $75 total in supplies. Wire, terminals and switches aft of the firewall is fine.





 
bnt83 said:
I ran out of clear heat shrink so the two terminals in the background got black heat shrink like the one shown. The two in the center (red & blue) are grounds and no heat shrink applied.

I still need to reassemble the switch.
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Out of curiosity, why the heat shrink? I can't say that I have ever seen that on an ignition switch before.

Not that is is a bad idea, just I haven't seen it.
 
Greg Bockelman said:
Out of curiosity, why the heat shrink? I can't say that I have ever seen that on an ignition switch before.

Not that is is a bad idea, just I haven't seen it.
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It was factory so I re-did it that way. The black one in the picture is the power wire from the bus, and I didn't need to disturb that terminal.

I've seen some other wiring that was done like that, to prevent anything that fell on it from shorthing the circuit, on this airplane that I don't believe I have seen on others.
 
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One thing I have been kicking around a while is an EI-FP5L(P) (fuel flow). If you have seen the fuel system on the carbureted 177 you would know that it has a machined manifold at the carburetor that has 3 darn hoses (fuel pressure sense, engine driven pump, standby pump) connected to it. So with that all in mind I'm really thinking about putting the fuel flow transducer just after the strainer in this pipe (yellow arrow). Much easier than messing with the hoses/manifold assembly at the carburetor.

 
bnt83 said:
So with that all in mind I'm really thinking about putting the fuel flow transducer just after the strainer in this pipe (yellow arrow).
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Is that the line from the fuel selector valve? I see no problem in that. That is more or less the same way mine is plumbed on my 195.
 
Read the EI instructions, the ones I have require the transducer to have a hose on each end
 
Skylane81E said:
Read the EI instructions, the ones I have require the transducer to have a hose on each end
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True. Could remove the rigid line and fab two hoses. EI also says typically "our flow transducers tend to prefer fuel being pushed through them rather than sucked thru them"... A cessna 177 in level flight will gravity feed. The only reason it has pumps is inadequate fuel flow in nose high pitch attidudes.

The little box in the picture at the inboard lower side is the fuel strainer well downstream of the fuel selector and the firewall shutoff valves.
 
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I'm gonna email EI tech support and get their $.02
 
EI is giving me the "NO WAY due to possible vapor lock" locating the fuel transducer after the strainer but before the fuel pumps in this installation. Yet the pressure drop across the FT90 fuel sensor is so low that high wing gravity feed systems do not have problems.

I'm not interested in installing one for now. Too much other stuff going on.

Because I would have to drop the carburetor off the sump to remove the manifold block, plumb in the flow sensor, put the carb back on then probably get two new hoses and mess with the fittings to make everything fit again.
 
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Did more painting this weekend



Finished up the replacement of the P-leads, starter contactor control, the standby pump and alternator field wiring inside the cabin.



Also pulled the main bus feeder cable thru the firewall to the bus bar.



Also disassembled the primer plunger and lubed it. The whole thing was a little loose in the panel so I fixed that also. The cigarette lighter was loose too.
 
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bnt83 said:
Also disassembled the primer plunger and lubed it. The whole thing was a little loose in the panel so I fixed that also.
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Lubing primers usually makes them get really sticky in a few hours. Never had any luck with that. The fuel washes out most of the lube and leaves the thickener, which is gummy stuff. Best to clean the bore really well and use some new O-rings.

Now that you have that ignition switch all fixed up and back in the airplane, did you know about these? Chances are you have one or the other.

http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_G...B8ABD56539B4684886256A3E00759DBF?OpenDocument

http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_G...C14960A415D956BD86256E520053A53E?OpenDocument

Dan
 
Dan Thomas said:
Lubing primers usually makes them get really sticky in a few hours. Never had any luck with that. The fuel washes out most of the lube and leaves the thickener, which is gummy stuff. Best to clean the bore really well and use some new O-rings.

Now that you have that ignition switch all fixed up and back in the airplane, did you know about these? Chances are you have one or the other.

http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_G...B8ABD56539B4684886256A3E00759DBF?OpenDocument

http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_G...C14960A415D956BD86256E520053A53E?OpenDocument

Dan
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Oh yeah, it's a Bendix switch. The contacts and everything looked fine and when I rang out the p-leads with an ohm meter everything grounded correctly so on the run it should test fine.

I used engine oil on the primer orings because I figured that fuel would wash the oil out of any grease type oring lube.
 
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Wasn't obvious till I removed all the old hoses but clearly this hose was too short.


And the pretty new ones finally arrived.



I spent a few days trying to find 0.25 inch female spade contacts, un-insulated with an F type crimp and tabs to save the plastic connector shell at the voltage regulator. My backup plan was to just crimp on insulated spades and eliminate the plastic shell. The shell only makes it idiot proof as it will only go onto the voltage regulator one way. If the three wires had individual insulated spades it would be possible to incorrectly hook up the VR.
 
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Says they repaired two cracks.




Found 3 of the 4 cork rocker box gaskets split, hard and brittle. Well there's a leak! Duh...

 
Just never know what you are going to find on an airplane. This was on my oil cooler and I didn't catch it when I sent it out. :mad: Order parts, sit and wait. Fix airplane. Order more parts, sit & wait. Fix airplane. Order more parts.... :mad2:

The step on this fitting is HUGE. It had to be WAY overtightened.

 
That is a lot of hoses,

When I did the prebuy on my plane I discovered it had the original hoses, so at the first annual after I bought it I installed a firewall forward hose kit to replace the 23 year old factory bits.

Hose 1: strainer to carb
Hose 2: oil pressure to firewall fitting
 
Skylane81E said:
That is a lot of hoses,

When I did the prebuy on my plane I discovered it had the original hoses, so at the first annual after I bought it I installed a firewall forward hose kit to replace the 23 year old factory bits.

Hose 1: strainer to carb
Hose 2: oil pressure to firewall fitting
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I dislike Lycoming 320 & 360 powered aircraft because of this reason. The fact is you BUY all these extra items that a high performance plane would have and get low Cessna 172 performance. :mad2:

It's not a cheap system to repair at all. :no:
 
Slid a 2 inch OD piece of heavy wall heat shrink to accompany the plastic/nylon bulhead feedthrough over the shiny new wiring. Finished terminating the 8 gauge wires. I'm still waiting for three contacts to hook up the voltage regulator...


New fuel pump on, fuel hoses. Placed the top cowl on and started shimming the shock mounts for better clearnce around the aft edge of the cowl and the fueslage.



I started to run out of motivation Sunday at about 8 pm so I needed some visual progress:

 
I lean towards perfectionist and sometimes it just doesn't matter that much. So what do you guys think? Should I re-print these vinyl graphics smaller or just run with them slanted. I do not want the image to spill over onto the rudder.






Or does the aft fuselage work ok?

 
Yes, looks good there, and would look great spilling onto the rudder if you are willing to yank it off and verify that, gosh, the little bit of decal, installed with nearly a 0 arm didn't screw the balance.
 
Skylane81E said:
Yes, looks good there, and would look great spilling onto the rudder if you are willing to yank it off and verify that, gosh, the little bit of decal, installed with nearly a 0 arm didn't screw the balance.
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I should cut the white portion off and test how sticky it is then consider letting it spill onto the rudder with a balance check...


Gonna have to be printed a lot smaller otherwise.
 
If you do, jut place it a little lower and further forward to cover the Cessna decal, (or remove the decal)
 
Was working hard last night but was forced to stop and sign books at gunpoint :lol: by Lisa (co-author). No desk available so...


 
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