RV-8 disassembly for transport

The New to me RV-8 made it almost all the way home. After takeoff on net last leg, the engine started running rough and the Dynon showed a cylinder about 100 degrees cooler that the rest. Short version is oil all over the belly and three cylinder base studs broken on the #1 cylinder . I will be pulling the wings and tail and putting it in a Uhaul for the final leg home. Does anyone have any advice for wing and tail removal? Headed down tomorrow for prep work and hoping to move it on Monday.

Scott

If you use an open trailer then you won't have to take the tail off. I used an enclosed trailer and removing the tail can be tedious, next time I buy one that needs to be transported I'll take an open trailer.

Wow! so sorry to hear this, hopefully someone near you can help, the tail fasteners are easy but the wings are going to be the challenge, drain all the fuel, support the wings with saw horses and pillows, unhook fuel lines, pitot lines, wiring, aileron push rods, flap rods, flaps, gap seals. The close tolerance spar bolts will need to be driven out, this will require a lot of effort and a box of cuss words.

Spar bolts = rivet gun with brass peen:

https://aircraft-tool.com/shop/detail.aspx?id=ATS107A-3B

Probably will need some brass and steel drift pins to complete the removal.

A long pry bar on the spar bolts will help, too. Plan to replace them when the wings go back on.

Sorry for you luck!

It's fairly straight forward. Having the plans available helps so you can see hows its put together. But basically you just remove the fairings, disconect the flight controls, pitot line, fuel lines and electrical wires, then remove the spar bolts and pull the wings and tail off.

Bring a drill with a flexible extension for the million screws on the floor board.

One thing that is very helpful for the wings is to use a saw horse with blankets on it to rest the wing on as you tap out the spar bolts. You will need someone to help unload the tension on the wing to remove the bolts. If its and rv 8, I recommend buying a wood saw horse and then cutting several inches off two of the legs so that the saw horse leans at the same angle as the wings in relation to the ground.

There are a couple smaller bolts in the wing spar that arent as obvious as the big ones. Try to remove those first so that you dont forget about them.

One gotcha

If you remove the tail, put the 3 tailspring bracket/aft bulkhead bolts back in for transport. Otherwise, the aft bulkhead will be ruined in a very short time.

Of course, this applies only when the ship is tied down with the tail wheel on the trailer...if you support the fuse with the tail wheel not on the surface, this caveat does not apply.

Tail Weight

Depending on your empty CG (do you have a heavy engine and prop?), you may need to add some ballast weight to the rear of the aircraft before removing the tail and wings. These things can get quite nose heavy without the weight of the empennage and wings to balance the engine and prop.

Skylor

Slide hammer puller for wing bolts.
Made a mini one for getting into tight places.

Good advice from F1Boss regarding the tailspring bracket bolts. That one almost bit me on one trailering adventure. Luckily it was only for a short distance and didn’t do any serious damage.

Thanks all for the input, the wing bolts were indeed the worst part of disassembly. Everything fit into a 24? car hauler, now begins the reassembly and engine overhaul.