Jvon811
Well Known Member
I've tried and tried and tried and now I'm turning to the internet.
As most of you know, or can figure out, attached is a pic of the 12" spinner on my RV-4, FP prop. Screws attach it to the rear bulkhead, there is a front bulkhead (hidden) with a bead of RTV around it to seal tight but the screws do the the holding power. Looks clean, I like it...
I've had the spinner of several times before. BUT, last time... Last time it appeared as though I needed a bit more Red RTV in there to stop any moving/vibration that was occurring. It was showing very minor wear patterns.
Welllll... Bigger the gob, the better job, right? Wrong... It appears I have used RTV and basically glued my spinner onto the front bulkhead.
I have pulled, prodded, prayed, heated (hair dryer, nothing crazy), and pulled some more. I have had my airplane up to 18k' since the RTV so a thought was maybe the pressure in the cone is pretty low and it suctioned on. I drilled the smallest hole I could (#64) to maybe equalize pressure and have even put 120psi of compressed air to it without success. I have used safety wire woven through the screw holes to make nice handles so I could pull really hard and that didn't work. The safety wire started pulling through the sides of the screw holes I was pulling so hard. I have even used a very thin metal ruler as a splitter. Push the ruler in from the backside (between the rear backplate and spinner so I could hopefully work it through the RTV and separate the two. Still no luck, she's on there good.
My question to the VAF is, does anyone have any better ideas before I cut to later repair or have to destroy my spinner?
As most of you know, or can figure out, attached is a pic of the 12" spinner on my RV-4, FP prop. Screws attach it to the rear bulkhead, there is a front bulkhead (hidden) with a bead of RTV around it to seal tight but the screws do the the holding power. Looks clean, I like it...
I've had the spinner of several times before. BUT, last time... Last time it appeared as though I needed a bit more Red RTV in there to stop any moving/vibration that was occurring. It was showing very minor wear patterns.
Welllll... Bigger the gob, the better job, right? Wrong... It appears I have used RTV and basically glued my spinner onto the front bulkhead.
I have pulled, prodded, prayed, heated (hair dryer, nothing crazy), and pulled some more. I have had my airplane up to 18k' since the RTV so a thought was maybe the pressure in the cone is pretty low and it suctioned on. I drilled the smallest hole I could (#64) to maybe equalize pressure and have even put 120psi of compressed air to it without success. I have used safety wire woven through the screw holes to make nice handles so I could pull really hard and that didn't work. The safety wire started pulling through the sides of the screw holes I was pulling so hard. I have even used a very thin metal ruler as a splitter. Push the ruler in from the backside (between the rear backplate and spinner so I could hopefully work it through the RTV and separate the two. Still no luck, she's on there good.
My question to the VAF is, does anyone have any better ideas before I cut to later repair or have to destroy my spinner?
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