Hello,
I plan to begin my James cowl installation. I read a lot of post about but I am still a bit confused to how proceed.
Do you have some recommendations for me, what to do and what not to do ?
Or if you have to re-do it what do you change or add to have the best fit/result ?
In advance thank you for your help
Sylvain
The James cowl fitting is not much different than others.
Here are DanH's instructions on the beginning. For SJ - I made a 2 discs from cardboard with a marked center the size of the OD of the inlet ring, also make a disc, like Dans picture, I made a wooden one with a center hole that tightly fits the prop extension guide for the prop. This centers it on the crankshaft. Also drilled/clecoed the disc to the upper and lower cowl for easy removal trimming and prefect repositioning for further checking. I did not worry about the droop that might happen to the engine with time. If that happens, then I will just shim the mounts to compensate. Only deal with the issue if it appears. While you are marking the circles on the wood disc, make a circle for the prop bolts, you might need them to space out the disc.
If you have the Hartzell composite prop, you will need to address the full pitch blade clearance. An entirely different decision to me made.
After fitting the front, the disc will keep the halves aligned until you glass the tabs between the air inlets and prop. This will come later after all the sides and back have been fitted.
Remember - you are fitting to what you have, not to some "design" dimensions. The cowl split is not horizontal, i.e. parallel to the fuse rail. I have some other posts for how I installed the inlets.
The SJ cowl has the plane of the prop flange, and the inlets in the same plane. Vans does not. Vans inlets are shifted to the rear. Just a design difference.
With the information above, you should be well on your way for fitting.
Question - do you have the short or long cowl, and what engine?