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Lower baffle safety wiring

zkvii

zkvii

Well Known Member
Hi,

I give up.... I don't see how / what I'm meant to do for the lower baffles and the safety wire. I understand I need to use the 'brake line' to protect the oil return, but questions:

Does the wire go above or below the oil line - I think it is below
How do you protect the AL ends from the Stainless wire chewing through it
Where do you 'pull together' the wire
Should it be twisted the whole way or just the ends
How tight should the baffle to cooling fins be

Has someone got a few close up photos of this area - my normal websearching has proved fruitless

Thanks,

Carl
 
I twisted all the way. Use doublers and steel washers to keep from pulling through. I have pictures in my build log.
 
Lower Baffle Safety Wire

zkvii said:
Hi,

I give up.... I don't see how / what I'm meant to do for the lower baffles and the safety wire. I understand I need to use the 'brake line' to protect the oil return, but questions:

----------------------------------------------------

Hi Karl

Rather than safety wire I used stainless welding rod and threaded the ends for #4 nuts. Behind the nut I use a washer, a small compression spring and another washer against the baffle flange. The welding rod has enough rigidity that you can bend it to give clearance around the oil return line. The compression spring(s) allow for any expansion contraction and if you want to be fancy you can put some colourful heat shrink where the rod passes under the oil line.

Takes a bit longer but sure looks a lot better than the bailing wire technique and is working well with no signs of wearing at 465 hours on 6A.
Click to expand...
 
There was a good thread on this topic about 6-9 months ago. Threaded rods and such were discussed but there was some concern about them rotating and coming up to rub against the cylinder fins or return lines.

Someone else gave the excellent idea to drill holes in the edge of the inter-cylinder baffles and wire the main baffles to those holes. That way you can avoid the oil return lines completely. That is what I did, and it worked well.

Also, there is some oft-cited advice to put washers or doublers on the holes so that the steel wire can't pull through the aluminum. Seems unlikely to me, but it'll only cost you a few cents and few seconds to do it.
 
I used AN3-x bolts in this area. Each tab on the lower baffles was doubled using 0.063 for extra strength. I then drilled a #12 hole in each tab. I then inserted AN3-5 bolts with castle nuts on each tab. This enabled me to use the hole in the end of the bolt to attach the safety wire to. It has worked out very well so far. I then covered the safety wire with white plastic lines. I beleive my lines go above the oil lines on one side and below elsewhere. Which ever gives you the most clearance. I used the doubler plate to lower the bolt holes a bit.

Steve
RV7A
Mattituck Red/Gold IO-360
120 hrs
 
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