RLCarter

I feel your pain, I purchased my "E" 18 months ago and could have spent a couple of weeks to get it back in Annual. Like you my list was getting longer each time I went to the hangar, granted most of the items could have been deferred but sometimes it just easier to address the issue while your there. A couple of good things come from what we are doing with our birds, (1) we know our birds inside and out (2) the next annual should be a cake walk (3) piece of mind knowing that the work was actually done and not pencil whipped. There is a ton of good info on MS but like ALL forums there are also people that have "A head full of ideas and shit for brains". Keep chipping away and it will get done, I've seen those "flying projects" and the majority of them never get completed.

Nice bicycle..........jk

Salt = Corrosion, a lot depends on the salinity content of the body of water you are next to. Here in S. Texas we have the Laguna Madre (the bay) which has 2 inlets from the Gulf of Mexico making it one of the highest salinity bodies of water in the world.

I've used my lathe for simple milling by mounting a small 2 axis vise vertically on the cross slide, If you need 2D to 3D I can draw from what you have.

are you machining the pivot joints or do you have a source for them?

I use to work on Sea-Doo watercraft back in the late 80's and it was in the service manual to use a rope to lock up the motor to toque the prop or the flywheel, the stuck valve is a little tricky do to the fact you can bend the valve if your not really careful

Use a Colton rope threaded through the spark plug hole, then slowly rotate the prop to smash the rope in the cylinder up against the valves to hold them in place to remove the valve springs or to push the valve closed if it's stuck , it's done on the compression stroke

Getting video might be tough, with the tool and torque wrench an a hand to feel for movement there isn't much room. The actual process isn't that difficult at all, we spent maybe an hour but after N201 suggested the paper I went back and rechecked them in less than 20 minutes (was still on the jacks)

I live 18nm from the Gulf of Mexico and keep the plane 35nm from the Gulf so we Wash, Wax and Corrosion-X, and repeat often. Lunch on Mustang Island (KRAS) ends with a rinse and a "fly dry"

The rope works well, used it several times on my buddies 0-300 Conti for a stuck valve

As with anything the result will depend on the prep, use a stiff bristle broom to clean the asphalt or concrete followed by a leaf blower or compressed air to get rid of the dust. Masking tape (if its not too windy) and a 4" roller work the best, leave the tape on for around 30 minutes then remove it, allow the paint to cure for 24 hrs before allowing any traffic. The traffic paint works the best as it is designed to stick to asphalt (oil based), if your painting concrete remove any oil or stains so the paint will stick better in that area

Replacing the disk was the 1st thing I did to my E, was a little spendy due to the fact they had never been replaced and I had to get the updated parts from LASAR to get the new style disks to work. Actual work wast that bad, I fabricated my own compression tool due to the fact they wanted stupid money to buy one (could have rented one but I like having the tools on hand when I need them). Local A&P looked over my shoulder while I did the nose gear, said he'd come back in a few hours to check my work, by the time he got back I was done. He now uses my shock disk tool instead of renting one, says its easier to use and quicker than what he had been using.

Good idea, if the numbers would have been all over the place, I was going to put a dial indicator on them

Coming from many years in the motorcycle industry and working with tolerances as little as 0.01mm (0.0005") and 1000cc (61 cu in) engines that turn 14k rpm and crank out 200+hp I sometimes forget.....lol

1964-M20E, What torque wrench (make/model) are you using that spans the range needed, we ended up use 3 different wrenchs, could have gotten by with 2 but I wanted to know what the Nose was reading

Nose gear tubes were set a half turn apart, got them even then set the preload. I have a service manual from 1966 (not current and not the one I use)..same procedure as today just higher torque values, Nose 140~200 ideally 170 with the Mains being 275~325 and should be equal

I agree with Piloto, I am on the Mexican/Texas border, there are several dialects depending where in Mex and then there is TexMex (half and half) spoken on the border. I've heard a stressed out Mexican pilot that spoke fluent English earlier go straight to Spanish as things got worse, ATC spoke no Spanish so a local pilot (US) fluent in both got things calmed down enough that the Mex Pilots English came back and they were able to get him to the airport and on the ground.

I fly multiple aircraft and do a fair job at keeping the tail numbers straight on radio calls, change the number of one of them and I assure you i would be making corrections and or missing calls until I got use to the new number

We didn't have any issues performing the task, it actually straight forward and easily done. My issue is in the way it is done, I would bet you could have 6 well experienced Mooney guys all check the gear and you would come up with 6 different settings measured

Just spent the afternoon checking the rigging of my manual gear E. Both my A&P/IA and I read the Maintenance Manual, Service Bulletin and the Service Instruction multiple times each to get a full understanding of the task that was about to take place. Armed with the knowledge we set out to check the nose gear, first the IA ran the torque wrench while I detected any movement (this was done several times). Next we switched and he detected the movement several times as well. The IA consistently detected movement at 96 in-lb of torque while I came up with 90 in-lb. Being below the minimum of 100 in-lb an adjustment was made and rechecked by both, it now reads 102~106 in-lb, on the light side but with in range so it was off to the mains Right Main came in at 246 and 252 (pretty consistent, still 6 in-lbs between us). The Left Main came in a little higher at 264 and 270, but with in the 25 in-lb difference between them so no adjustment was made on the Mains. I’m happy that this now out of the way and that they are within the limits set by Mooney. Actual time was maybe an hour but the belly skin was already off and was not reinstalled afterwards and we only had to adjust the Nose Gear rods a half turn. What burned up the rest of the day was discussing what a crude method it was for setting what I would consider a crucial value. While we had readings within 6 in-lb of each other someone else might of come up with a much higher or lower reading depending on their sensitivity for detecting movement. Anyone that has checked/rigged their gear feel the same way?

Congrats!!!!!

Have fun on your ck ride and be prepared for what ever gets thrown at you (don’t get flustered). My first approach was a LOC, as keyed the mic to declare a missed approach there was a loud squeal over the radio then silence, clearance for the missed was to fly heading 040 and climb to 4000, so that is what I did. After the turn I tried another radio call (nothing) so I had the DPE hand me my handheld and contacted the tower only to be told to standby. After a few minutes I told the DPE I should squawk 7600 and light up their screen but it was obvious they were having issues with a Mexican aircraft coming in and there was a major language barrier. When they finally got back to me we were level at 4000, trouble shooting the radios to no avail, so I canceled IRF and took the DPE back. A week later the second part of the ck ride wasn’t much better, a newbie on ground cleared me 14,000 ft so after my read back I requested 4000 which was approved. I was to intercept and track the 010 radial outbound and approach would call my turn to hold over the VOR (inbound commercial and GA traffic). At 23 DME I gave them a courtesy call and they turned me inbound but they changed the radial I was to hold on twice before I got there. I nailed the hold and the inbound leg on the first circuit but held for another 5 turns before I was released (over 30 minutes of holding). Next came the VOR-A circle to land at a non-towered field 15 miles away, after giving a position report on Unicom I heard the DPS Helicopter (State Police) say he was at 700ft and ½ mile north of the field (i was 7 miles south) directing a pursuit in progress, great right where I’m headed, he then came on a said he was on the ground. The ILS was the last thing I had to do so back to KMFE I went via vectors from hell due to more Mexico traffic, so like I said don’t get rattled if things pop up, fly the plane and have fun. By the way my 3 approaches should have been about an hour but due to the vectoring, holds and all the other stuff it was 2:45 minutes and the DPE had 2 cups of coffee before hand, he came out of the plane when we parked and was on a mission.

I replaced the seal on my ram air door, there are 2 flat rectangle pieces of aluminum and the mounting bracket, door is held on with 3 screws from the back side, wasn't that difficult, but I had the lower cowl off already. A little time consuming trimming the seal to fit perfect (used a flashlight to ck seal). Used a benchtop belt sander to sneak up on a tight seal, maybe 2hrs total time

Clarence as you well know supply and demand also dictate the price the market will handle. I would venture to say that the disks are outsourced by Lords which just adds to the cost. Back in the 80's I had a customer walk in looking for a widget, I reached behind me and flipped one onto the counter and said $10.95, customer said he could get it across town for $9.95. I told that was a good deal and to go buy one there, he said they were out of stock, which I replied "oh, I sell mine for $8.95 when I don't have any"

I trained in a Tomahawk back in 1979, it had less than 20hrs TTAF, great little bird, 2400 TBO, easy to get in and out of, wide cabin and great visibility (which works both ways with the sun) and sips fuel and a lot faster than the 150/152's