Brief Description: Mounting The Hartzell 72" CS Prop - Part 1
Building HOBBS Meter: 1648 Hours Since June 4 2008
It felt like another major milestone this weekend as the Hartzell 72" constant speed prop got mounted to the front of the RV-8. Before the prop could be mounted, however, the spinner backplates had to be fabricated and installed since they are directly attached to prop. There is a .063" backplate stiffener ring that has the cutout for a Hartzell already punched out. But the bad news was that the spinner backplate needed the same cutout and *doesn't* come prepunched! So, I used the stiffener as a template and then the Dremel tool and a couple of files to get the backplate to match. It came out very nice and the backplate looks just like the pre-punched stiffener.
The front plate was pretty simple to install and I opted to go ahead and do the torquing and safety wiring.
Hoisting the 55 lbs prop up onto the engine crankshaft wasn't too hard, but I'll tell you right now, holding it there for 30 minutes while I tried to get the super-find prop bolts to thread into the thrust plate was quite a challenge! My left arm felt like it was going to fall off.
I added some Vaseline to the O-ring inside the prop for sealing up the hydraulic connection between the engine and prop. One of the photos shows a close up of the hollow-crankshaft on the engine. This is used to pump engine oil into the prop to adjust the pitch of the blades. The prop governor mounted on the side of the engine is used to regulate this action which is controlled by the pilot.
When I stood back and looked at the RV-8 with the prop mounted, I had a real sense of "its getting really close to flying"! Its really starting to look like an airplane now, that's for sure!!
