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I wish I had used a torque wrench
You could have used a Helicoil thread insert.
I am not certain of your plug size or thread pattern but you should try Helicoil
and see if there is an insert to fit. Relatively very cheap.
Ian Crowe
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 4:41
AM
Subject: [LML] I wish I had used a torque
wrench
So there I am on my crawler, finishing up an oil
change on N413AJ that has a total of 110 hours on her. I’m putting the
plug in the oil pan and its nice and tight. I think (here is where I
started to get into trouble) “I want this nice and tight so it doesn’t break
the safety wire and fall out in flight, jettisoning all the oil which freezes
the engine and I have to crash land somewhere....”
So one more little
twist on the plug, and OOOOOOOps! It went just a little bit too
far.
I don’t need to tell you the level of disappointment that flooded
over me as I contemplated that I had just stripped the threads in the oil sump
pan.
So I atoned for my sin.
I bought a new sump, hired some
help, disconnected lots of stuff, jacked the engine up just high enough to
remove the old pan and slip it out the front and scrape off the old gasket and
install a new pan with gasket. Then lower the engine back into place,
call Lancair to see how to torque the engine mounting bolts (450 – 500 inch
pounds), then hook everything back up.
So I’m ready to fly once
again.
MEANWHILE, I have an Oil Sump pan from Continental, part number
632876 with only a hundred hours on it, in perfect working condition, except
for the stripped threads in the oil plug hole.
The mechanic who helped
me out yesterday told me that the right guy with the right aluminum welding
skills could actually weld in a new aluminum disk that could be threaded and
the pan would be good as new.
Since I do not possess aluminum welding
skills, my options are:
* Offer the oil
sump pan for sale to the highest bidder, or
*
Make a wall clock out of it.
I haven’t gotten the bill for it yet, but
the mechanic told me the new sump pan would cost about $2,300.00. That
is for a new one with threads that are not yet stripped. I don’t know
what mine, with the stripped threads, would be worth.
So if anyone has
a need for an Oil Sump Pan with stripped threads, let me know. Or if you
have any particularly clever and creative ideas on how to make a clock out of
it, I would be interested in hearing from you as
well.
Cheers,
John Hafen
N413AJ — 110 hours
PS — the
kindly mechanic said, “John — just use a 1/4th inch drive on everything you do
and you’ll be fine. “ Then he handed me the Continental specs that list
torque settings for everything under the sun, just in case I decide to go that
route.
jh
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