Jump to content

Mystery 7/16 inch hex nut appeared on copilot side floor


Recommended Posts

Found a 7/16-20 hex nut on the floor about 6 inches aft of the rudder pedals on the copilot side of my 1988 M20J 205SE.  The nut is 1/4 inch thick. Just a basic hex nut; not a locking nut. Brakes are only on the pilot side.  I spent a good while looking up under the panel on the copilot side and at the center console area and around the copilot rudder pedals.  All flight control linkages, control linkage mounting points and other hardware use substantially smaller nuts.  This 7/16 inch hex nut is much larger than any others I saw being used in the cockpit area.  Maybe it came off some part of the seat; I haven't checked that.  Any idea where this nut fell from?

IMG_5136.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Look around and behind the console or other areas where a push-pull cable might route. There are quite a few of those.

It shouldn't be anything related to flight controls... Those should be lock nuts or have cotter keys.

Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Speaking from personal experience; I have lost a nut during a hard to access assembly and after spending ten minutes looking for said dropped nut, I'll give up and go get a replacement and finish the assembly.  This then means that some time later the darn nut shows up.  So your found nut could simply be an orphan nut that ran away during a maintenance project and has now returned.  I was just working on my engine mount bolts which are hard to see behind the panel and found my engine borescope (the vividia which connects to my ipad) to be invaluable for seeing behind the panel.  

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Clarence would know, my guess is fell out of some mechanics pocket when he crawled under
7/16 is massive relative to the 3/8’s everywhere. Linkages behind throttle quadrant are 3/8 I believe.  It didn’t come from firewall aft. Don’t recall nuts that big on seat assembly either. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

You may find that nut on the starter solenoid or the ammeter shunt.

Oh, that'd suck.

It might be worth snaking an endoscope up to inspect these and make sure nothing important is missing.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7/16-20 nuts are used on all the power plant control cables where they pass through the firewall.  They are plain machine nuts and normally use a plain washer and a lock washer on each side of the firewall.  Have you had any new cables installed recently?

Clarence

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.