Our flying RV-6 originally had an O-320 and now has a new Superior IO-360 in it. During the conversion to FI, the carb heat door became the alternate air source. Unfortunately the door came loose a few months ago due to cracking of the top plate of the air box at the ends of the door hinge on both sides. After removing the door completely, we are still flying (effectively with both normal air and alternate air sources open at the same time) but during our upcoming annual we want to make a repair.
We had Vans ship us a new FAB-360 kit so we have all the parts we need just in case we need to rebuild the whole thing. However our plan A is just to make a new front half of the top plate (VA-130-B) to rivet onto the existing top plate, with a new D-shaped cutout. However I am worried that the new air box top plate is narrower than the old one (which probably dates from about the year 2000). I'm at home and don't want to go to the airfield and de-cowl to check, so I'm wondering if anyone knows if the dimensions of this part have been changed over the years, or what the old dimensions were?
Has anyone else experienced the same failure? Did you come up with anything clever to prevent a recurrence?
Thanks for any help or suggestions.
We had Vans ship us a new FAB-360 kit so we have all the parts we need just in case we need to rebuild the whole thing. However our plan A is just to make a new front half of the top plate (VA-130-B) to rivet onto the existing top plate, with a new D-shaped cutout. However I am worried that the new air box top plate is narrower than the old one (which probably dates from about the year 2000). I'm at home and don't want to go to the airfield and de-cowl to check, so I'm wondering if anyone knows if the dimensions of this part have been changed over the years, or what the old dimensions were?
Has anyone else experienced the same failure? Did you come up with anything clever to prevent a recurrence?
Thanks for any help or suggestions.