Yo Guys,

 

Here's how I do it.  Uncle George had some first hand experience with this when he visited me a couple of years ago.  On the Saturday,  I coached him through an assembly of a 13B turbo Series V engine over a few beers. We even made a video of it!!

 

Having now used the Tracy/Bruce seals (I bought them from Tracy,  but I know they are Bruce's baby),  I can see the best way to assemble them is to superglue them,  just like I have always done with the factory stuff.  The earlier 1202-11-300A 3mm apex seals come with a little piece of rubber to take the spring pressure off the end piece.  However,  if they are second hand,  and you don't have the little bits of rubber,  so there is no other option but to glue them.

 

Same principle as the factory two piece 2mm N35-11-C00C seals for the REW engines.  They come factory glued!  So do the 12A RX7 seals,  as well as the 3 piece early model 2mm seals.  If they are not glued,  the problem is when you are putting the centre housing on,  the end pieces can pop out as the shaft is lifted.  Not nice!!  The end pices then become "devil bits" .  You end up down on your hands & knees saying "where the devil did that bit go??"

 

The trick is to scrupulously clean the surfaces with some carby cleaner/alcohol/MEK/Acetone (whatever liver poison takes your fancy!).  Then lightly scuff the ends of the apex seal and the end piece with some 400 - 600 wet&dry.  Then glue the end piece just ever so SLIGHTLY up from the top of the main seal. This puts it out a bit as well. Not much superglue is needed. Just ONE drop is sufficient!!  

 

I normally lay the seals down on a piece of plastic.  A LIGHT mist of WD-40 or similar will act as a release compound on the plastic.  The superglue doesn't seem to stick real well to polythene,  and if one is careful,  none gets on the plastic anyway..  Only a SMALL drop is needed.  Saves getting it on your claws too!!  You will only get it on your claws if you are a messy child and use too much!!  As the housings are torqued,  the glue will break.  As George remembers when I showed him,  if it's done correctly,  you can actually hear the end pieces click loose as the bolts are tightened.

 

To insert the apex seal,  I normally remove the corner seal,  slide the apex seal down about half way,  then install the spring(s).  Then slide the whole box & dice down,  being careful not to notch the apex seal on the edge of the trochoid.  The spring(s) need to be compressed and the seal held off the trochoid a bit  (The factory seals are really soft - Bruce's seals are like glass in comparison).  I then re-install the corner seal and rubber plug,  and make sure it rides up and down on the spring,  checking that it depresses below the side of the rotor face.

 

Anyway guys,  that's my little canvas bag full of pesos for today.

 

Cheers,

 

Leon

----- Original Message -----

From: George Lendich

To: Rotary motors in aircraft

Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2005 12:45 PM

Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Engine assembled

Jesse,

 

Yep it can be messy alright. That's why I asked the question.

 

The real question is how do you get the apex seal in that tiny slot when your finger's stuck permanently to it?

George ( down under)

 

Oh yeah; this reminds, how do you get the damn stuff safely off your finger when you get too much glue on in too much a hurry ?

jofarr

----- Original Message ----- From: George Lendich

 

What I have been shown is to superglue the end piece to the apex seal,  with spring place under it, and with the corner seal in place, gently but firmly slide the apex seal ( one piece now) and spring into place.