- Fun Factor.: 0/10
- Strokes had.: 2 (minor)
- Swear words spoken: Many
First step is simple, drain the tanks. Being the nice feller I am I put a hundie worth of gas in 00W for the potential buyer to use when he got here since there was only 10 gallons left when I picked her up from the avionics shop. MISTAKE. I had to drain 4, 5 gallon gas jugs full.
Second step is simple: remove all the tank screws.
Round 1: I had about a 90% success rate just really digging in a getting them out. It helps to be fat like me so you can throw your weight into it and dig in, I fully expect elbow problems in my future. They ALL required a lot of elbow grease to get out. My advice is, if you're getting frustrated STOP! take a breather then get back at it, don't screw the heads up, you'll make it worse. There's like 140 of them you want them all to come out on the first try.
Round 2: 10% of the screws wouldn't come out with my arm strength. I get a small ball peen hammer (like upholstery shops use) and a slightly oversized bit and lightly tap the screwdriver, more like a vibrate than a tap. 1/4" strokes very rapidly while holding down LOTS of pressure on the bit driver. 50% success rate with this method, this is where I'm sure I had a stroke it took all my might to twist those suckers out.
Round 3: 95% done, 95% to go. If you can't beat em' break out the power tools. This really wasn't that bad. Got out the pneumatic die grinder with a grinding disc on it, and LIGHTLY cut a flathead slot in the remaining 7 extremely stuck screws. Then took a large flathead and removed them.
Next, my tanks just slid out, i'm told some can be problematic. Slide them forward 3" or so gently. Just cut the wire, I didn't want to torque on the stud on the back of the fuel sender, it's a 3/8" wrench but I applied more pressure than I wanted to and it didn't move so I just cut them. The fuel hose is a 5/8" wrench. Slowly work the tanks off.
That's as far as I got tonight, the spar looks good, some minor surface corrosion on the ribs, asked my A&P if I should sand it off he said no it would just create a new place for it to grow and it looks about like any other planes this age, just get some AC-50 and fog it. Had one fuel sender gasket leaking a little blue luckily, I ordered the Airward kit and it comes with it.
Here's some pictures of the spar, I'll take more extensive photos when I put it back together.
https://picasaweb.google.com/mcfarling.bart/00W_SB1006
Total Time 6 hours. Had I REALLY busted my ass and gotten after it, I don't think I could have gotten the tanks off short of 4 hours. It took 6 to drain the tanks, get all my tools unloaded, remove the screws, pull the tanks, remove the fuel senders clean up and leave.
- Strokes had.: 2 (minor)
- Swear words spoken: Many
First step is simple, drain the tanks. Being the nice feller I am I put a hundie worth of gas in 00W for the potential buyer to use when he got here since there was only 10 gallons left when I picked her up from the avionics shop. MISTAKE. I had to drain 4, 5 gallon gas jugs full.
Second step is simple: remove all the tank screws.
Round 1: I had about a 90% success rate just really digging in a getting them out. It helps to be fat like me so you can throw your weight into it and dig in, I fully expect elbow problems in my future. They ALL required a lot of elbow grease to get out. My advice is, if you're getting frustrated STOP! take a breather then get back at it, don't screw the heads up, you'll make it worse. There's like 140 of them you want them all to come out on the first try.
Round 2: 10% of the screws wouldn't come out with my arm strength. I get a small ball peen hammer (like upholstery shops use) and a slightly oversized bit and lightly tap the screwdriver, more like a vibrate than a tap. 1/4" strokes very rapidly while holding down LOTS of pressure on the bit driver. 50% success rate with this method, this is where I'm sure I had a stroke it took all my might to twist those suckers out.
Round 3: 95% done, 95% to go. If you can't beat em' break out the power tools. This really wasn't that bad. Got out the pneumatic die grinder with a grinding disc on it, and LIGHTLY cut a flathead slot in the remaining 7 extremely stuck screws. Then took a large flathead and removed them.
Next, my tanks just slid out, i'm told some can be problematic. Slide them forward 3" or so gently. Just cut the wire, I didn't want to torque on the stud on the back of the fuel sender, it's a 3/8" wrench but I applied more pressure than I wanted to and it didn't move so I just cut them. The fuel hose is a 5/8" wrench. Slowly work the tanks off.
That's as far as I got tonight, the spar looks good, some minor surface corrosion on the ribs, asked my A&P if I should sand it off he said no it would just create a new place for it to grow and it looks about like any other planes this age, just get some AC-50 and fog it. Had one fuel sender gasket leaking a little blue luckily, I ordered the Airward kit and it comes with it.
Here's some pictures of the spar, I'll take more extensive photos when I put it back together.
https://picasaweb.google.com/mcfarling.bart/00W_SB1006
Total Time 6 hours. Had I REALLY busted my ass and gotten after it, I don't think I could have gotten the tanks off short of 4 hours. It took 6 to drain the tanks, get all my tools unloaded, remove the screws, pull the tanks, remove the fuel senders clean up and leave.
