S

Stan Bahrns

Active Member
Does everyone lean toward the eyeball type firewall cable seals or is there a sealer that will do the trick for less $?
 
Eyeball fittings

I used nine of these on my plane. Get the blue ones. They are easy to deal with. One tip, the chart in the Spruce catalog is AFU. Use the .026 size for throttle, prop and mixture cables. If you use the .024 as they recommend you'll be drilling them out.

I used them for wire pass throughs and the control cables. They look great and are easy to install.

Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler AZ
 
The blue ones are alumin(i)um and will melt in a fire, rather defeating the object. There are stainless versions available. There is also a stainless tube that rivets to the firewall and is sealed with firesleeve (can't remember who makes it). Van's also sells some black stuff (not proseal, but made by the same company), that works to very high temperatures. You have to use the whole thing at once as there is not much activator and the black stuff is quite thick. But, this stuff will make a cone over the top of grommets etc.

Pete
 
Eyeball fittings

Not to create an arguement but I see no problem with these fittings. I feel they are far superior to some of the nylon fittings that are out there. Secondly, by the time the fire go hot enough to melt through the fittings you will be a smoking hole in the ground for reasons far beyond aluminum eyeball fittings. My Skybolt fittings made of thinner, softer aluminum will be melted, the cowl gone, all wires gone etc... you get the picture.

These fittings are sold for this purpose and I firmly believe if there was a negative issue they wouldn't be available. The A&P and two time RV builder, (Robbie Attaway) has used these on both of his RV's and highly recommends them. Further, at LOE I witnessed many planes with these fittings.

The thought, "aluminum is going to melt," is far down the list of concerns when fire is concerned. After all the engine is aluminum. The weakest link in the system in front of the firewall is the wiring.

The eyeball fittings are one of the best options available. Easy to use, light and effective.

Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler AZ
 
I've heard that drilling out the steel eye balls is very difficult.

EPM.AV makes the firesleeve-based firewall seals. But they are $60-75 each and must be installed before you put anything through the hole in the firewall.

Dave
 
RV7Guy said:
Not to create an arguement but I see no problem with these fittings. I feel they are far superior to some of the nylon fittings that are out there. Secondly, by the time the fire go hot enough to melt through the fittings you will be a smoking hole in the ground for reasons far beyond aluminum eyeball fittings. My Skybolt fittings made of thinner, softer aluminum will be melted, the cowl gone, all wires gone etc... you get the picture.

These fittings are sold for this purpose and I firmly believe if there was a negative issue they wouldn't be available. The A&P and two time RV builder, (Robbie Attaway) has used these on both of his RV's and highly recommends them. Further, at LOE I witnessed many planes with these fittings.

The thought, "aluminum is going to melt," is far down the list of concerns when fire is concerned. After all the engine is aluminum. The weakest link in the system in front of the firewall is the wiring.

The eyeball fittings are one of the best options available. Easy to use, light and effective.

Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler AZ
Click to expand...


Its all down to your own attitude to risk. My view is that I don't want to cut holes in the firewall and plug them with things that melt at 1100 deg, I prefer the stainless versions. You might be surprised how quickly a fuel fed fire will get very hot - I want to keep all the smoke & crap out of the cockpit, at least I then have a chance of getting back on the ground.

Pete
 
I did the cheezy "van's solution" of the plastic snap bushings + ss cover and lots of proseal. Someday when I have an inflight fire, I'll be saying "I sure wish I bought those aluminum ball thingies."

:)
 
I've looked at both the ss sleeve deal and the aluminum eyeballs and have some trouble believing that the eyeballs would melt before the stainless. The eyeballs I saw were a much thicker material than the stainless and thus seem like they would take an awful long time to melt away.

Steve Zicree
RV4
 
I'm leaning toward the firesleeve/stainless setup from EPM.AV to pass the cables through the firewall. I just bought and installed their stainless steel cabin heat box, replacing the aluminum box Van's makes. It is high quality, nicely made. Their website, epm-avcorp.com, has pictures of the aluminum heat box melting in a simulated fire. The S/S box holds up. I asked Paul Bowmar, the man behind EPM, about the aluminum eyeballs. He said they quickly melted in a fire...
In flight fires are commonly said to be rare, but I have had smoke in the cockpit twice. It caused near brain lock-up and an intense desire to get on the ground, which I did. Now that I think about it, I know of three accidents caused by or involving inflight fire. Two of the pilots were airport aquaintances of mine. P-210 lifted a cylinder, IFR at night, oil pouring on the turbo caused a hot fire. Successful off airport landing. Second, Beech Travel Air had fire in the cabin from the cabin heater in the nose. Right seat pax was singed. Flat spin, all four dead. Third, a Navion caught fire right after takeoff. He made a frantic radio call and circled around, trailing smoke, but crashed out of control. Witnesses saw an orange glow coming from the cabin. Two dead. Cause of the fire was not determined but the airplane had just had maintenance on the hydraulics. So, fire is not all that rare in my experience. Spending time and money making the firewall smoke and flame proof is smart. Soft spots in the firewall might be your undoing. Steve
 
kevinh said:
I did the cheezy "van's solution" of the plastic snap bushings + ss cover and lots of proseal..."
Click to expand...

That actually doesn't sound like a bad plan. I would think those stainless covers would hold up fairly well in a fire. Makes it a little hard to add wires later, though. Here's a link to the firewall shields.
 
Make them u self

I thought I would try and make them eyeball thingys about the time this post showed up. here is a pic of what I have so far.

pict44236dn.jpg


The socket is easier to make than the ball. I just used some .025 stainless and made a sandwich between them aluminum blocks and squeezed the ball (from a big bearing 1-1/16") in my vice and viola!
The ball I just ground a lathe bit half round and turned it.
Frank k
9A wiring
 
Wow

FrankK90989 said:
I thought I would try and make them eyeball thingys about the time this post showed up. here is a pic of what I have so far.
Frank k
9A wiring
Click to expand...
Darn Overachievers. :D

Nice work and jealous. George
 
No Aluminum part in MY firewall

After seeing the results of a couple of minutes of an RV4 fuel fire earlier this year (melted aluminum and a gaping hole at the pilots feet), there is no way in h**l I will have aluminum parts passing through the firewall. I am even considering an addition of fiberfrax blanket in a few spots just for extra safety.
 
Throttle/Prop/Mixture Cables Question

Darwin,
Did you use the Vans throttle,prop,mixture cables or the Aircraft Spruce ACS ones?
Dave Newsum
Peoria AZ

RV7Guy said:
I used nine of these on my plane. Get the blue ones. They are easy to deal with. One tip, the chart in the Spruce catalog is AFU. Use the .026 size for throttle, prop and mixture cables. If you use the .024 as they recommend you'll be drilling them out.

I used them for wire pass throughs and the control cables. They look great and are easy to install.

Darwin N. Barrie
Chandler AZ
Click to expand...
 
Hi Dave,

I bought them from Van's. However, Van's gets them from Spruce. When I had the wrong cables I called Spruce to get an RMA and they couldn't find them on any of my many orders. Long story short, even though they had Spruce numbers on them I had got them from Van's.

If you get the eyeball fittings, get the .026 and not the recommended .024's. I had to drill a couple of them out.

Darwin


newsum said:
Darwin,
Did you use the Vans throttle,prop,mixture cables or the Aircraft Spruce ACS ones?
Dave Newsum
Peoria AZ
Click to expand...
 
firewall

rzbill said:
After seeing the results of a couple of minutes of an RV4 fuel fire earlier this year (melted aluminum and a gaping hole at the pilots feet), there is no way in h**l I will have aluminum parts passing through the firewall. I am even considering an addition of fiberfrax blanket in a few spots just for extra safety.
Click to expand...
Wow - what caused the fire? How are you planning to protect your firewall penetrations?
 
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