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#1
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Now that I just spent 2 days cleaning the window frame from the door of 2JF, I am ready to move on to other important tasks. These days with the snow falling and wonderful high temps in the 20's, making the 45 mile drive to Larry's hanger has been all but fun. Only because the excitement of again hugging 2JF each day keeps me coming back. OK, Larry and Kathryn's hospitality is a very, very close second. In fact, I must say that Larry and Kathryn are truly wonderful people. They continually want to feed me, make coffee, Larry is over in the hanger helping wrench on the plane and just all around great people. Many thanks to the Bowdish's for their allow me to take on this project in their hanger.
This project is a lot more than I had ever anticipated. It is wonderful and have really enjoyed it, but it's to the point now where I would like to see more progress. We seem to be finally making some progress in the last couple of days. Just little things being totally completed helps in the therapy. Like yesterday we finished the pulse light system. Also, I have always had a problem with the dimmer rheostat for the instrument lights, has anyone else had this issue? It would never function as a true dimmer, just turn it all the way clockwise to reach the end and finally the lights would work at full power. I had bought a new dimmer from Cessna years ago and it worked initially but then would quit except for full on. I have talked with other Skymaster owners and they too have had problems with this. Well while researching for a pulse light system and purchasing the unit from Seaton Enginering Corp. http://seatoneng.com/MaxPulse.htm I found that this company also made a solid state dimmer rheostat that is rated for 12.5 Amps or 350 Watts at 28 VDC. It is called MaxDim http://seatoneng.com/MaxDim.htm I have installed this unit and I will report the performance when all this project finishes enough put the aircraft in the air. The pulse light unit is really a nice compact switch for all the features that it has. The new Stobe power supply is mounted and wired. I will have new wing tip strobes and a tail strobe that flashes alternately with the wing tips. I still have the belly strobe too. Lots of new lighting additions along with interior lights to match the new eyeball vents for each passenger. Photos of those once the interior starts installing. I removed the 8 day wind up clock and opted for an electric, direct replacement. 2JF came off the show room floor with the fuse and power wires for an electric clock but got the 8 day wind up, at least that is what I thought. After removing the 8 day I read on the back "1979" so someone has messed with this before. Well if there was an electric there originally it's back to original now. Now trying to feed the strobe cable from the power supply on the rear firewall to the tail has posed a challenge. There is no access to the boom from the wing aft to the first panel where the autopilot control is. We are working on trying to find the best access, if anyone has done this let me know if there are any tricks to accessing this on the left side of the aircraft. As previous post's have indicated, we have been inspecting the right wing fuel tanks. Yesterday, after draining all the fuel through the sump quick drain valve, we removed the inboard main tank to inspect all fittings and interconnects on that specific tank. It appears that the leak culprit is the sending unit (fuel transmitting unit) gasket. When the tanks are full to the top that point where the sender unit is located is actually lower than the service filler neck. I notice this summer that I had signs of fuel on the underside of the right wing and now that we have this tank out it looks like the only place that the fuel was coming from was the sender gasket. It would trail quite a distance and would only leak when the mains were full. After there was 10 gals burned off it wouldn't leak. We will be cleaning up the tank and checking some of the areas that are really stained but by first inspection after the tank is out it looks like all is ok. We will replace all the cork on that tank because the small amount of fuel that leaked has compromised it's purpose. We also installed the Knots 2 U exterior LED light on the underside of the right wing. 2JF never had an exterior light and with this unit you don't have to even turn on the master switch. It operates on a 9 volt battery and automatically turns off after either 3 minutes or 15 minutes. Just a cool little addition. Well all the new insulation is 90% done and we are just about ready to start the window install next. We need to make sure all interior tasks are completed first so that the new interior can be installed and then we can start to work on the other items, main tires, rear engine mounts, oil filters for both engines, oil lead on front engine, etc., while the interior is being completed. Then once 2JF is deemed airworthy again it's off to the paint shop. BTW, I finally broke down and decided to remove the ADF and related items. I have a good ADF sense antenna if anyone needs one.
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Herb R Harney 1968 337C Flying the same Skymaster for 47 years Last edited by hharney : 01-11-09 at 04:35 PM. 
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#2
01-11-09, 04:31 PM
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Fuel tank photos
Well, last night we determined that the inboard main fuel tank indeed has a crack near the weld of the fitting that is pictured in the first photo. Just a very hair line crack but enough to make a mess as pictured in the third photo. We are debating the best method of repair. I don't like the idea of glues or chemical fixes but would prefer having it welded. Any thoughts? Any experiences out there with fuel tanks?
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Herb R Harney 1968 337C Flying the same Skymaster for 47 years Last edited by hharney : 01-13-09 at 12:41 PM.
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#4
01-13-09, 10:12 AM
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Quote:
In fact you are also welcome to spend the night.
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#5
01-13-09, 11:08 PM
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Fuel Tank Repair
Herb,
I have not had problems with the main tanks, but have repaired my right Aux tank. After draining the fuel and removing the tank, I flushed out the tank with soapy water several times. I did this by putting about a half gallon of soapy water in the tank and shaking it to assure the water covered the entire inside of the tank. This was done several times until I could no longer smell fuel on the tank. I then flushed it out with clean water. Again with soapy water, then again with clean water. I then sealed up all known orfices (drain, vents - thin aluminum tape works pretty well) pressurized the tank with low pressure air (just a couple of pounds... be careful here... too much pressure will render your tank useless. you might want to make sure at least one of your orfices is sealed with something which is definately weaker than the tank.) I used my hand to seal over the cap opening and held an air hose with very low flow, sealed between my thumb and my palm. I pressurized the tank until it just started to change shape on the flatter surfaces. Then a friend sprayed the entire outer surface with soapy water looking for bubbles. He marked the leaky areas and I took the tank to a local welding shop for repair. I told them that it was a fuel tank and how I had made it inert. I left it totally up to them to decide to repair it. Make sure your welding shop knows how to weld thin aluminum. Be sure there are no high welds directly over or under a rib. Be sure to inspect the entire tank. Mine had two leaks and I quit looking after finding the first one. The first time I returned it to the airplane and filled it with fuel, I found there was a second leak... I hate doing the same job twice... but I did. After the repair, I again sealed up the orfices, pressurized the tank and sprayed with soapy water to assure the leaks had been repaired. I then flushed the tank inside and outside with clean water, assured that ALL water had been removed from the tank and allowed it to dry for a couple of days. I inspected it for residual soap or water and was ready to return it to service when absolutely clean. I replaced the cork tape on the ribs (Bought an entire roll from a fishing shop somewhere in Florida. They use it for wrapping fishing pole handles. I have plenty left and can send you some if you want to email Larry's address to me. Tell me about how many feet you need (don't forget the ribs on the cover panel.) I have two sizes and I forget which I used, but can send both for you to choose from. my email is jim.stack@comcast.net . After reconnecting the lines, I filled the tank with fuel, a couple of gallons at a time, until I was sure there were no leaks. Good luck. The job is not too hard after you have removed the tanks. Hopefully you read the manual and placed a supporting structure under the wing before you removed the upper covers.
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Jim Stack Richmond, VA Last edited by stackj : 01-13-09 at 11:16 PM.
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#8
01-14-09, 04:07 PM
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Hey Larry maybe I should make a reservation at your house sounds a lot better than any hotel!
Just kidding Cheers Pete
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#9
01-15-09, 11:01 AM
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Jim / Skymstr 02
Thanks for the input, much appreciated. Wing and boom is supported, we will double check the tank for any other possible leaks. I ordered some silicon strips from Cessna which replaces the cork. But after talking to GMAS he said to just clean up the cork strips and re-use them using Pliobond to secure them. The original cork is still in really good shape. It had just moved around quite a bit. I may just return the silicon. Thanks for the offer on the cork if you have sent it and we don't use it I can return it or wait for the next victim and offer it to them.
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Herb R Harney 1968 337C Flying the same Skymaster for 47 years
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