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Fuel Tank Z Bracket

pfitzuscg

pfitzuscg

Member
I messed up a few fuel tank Z brackets. I cleco'd and clamped to the spar and think they drifted some while match drilling. I should have bolted them in. Looking at the archives, it appears I'm not the first.

Anyway, alignment is not very good for the bolts so going to replace them. From the updated builder's manual, it appears that the replacement parts from Van's may be pre-drilled. Does anyone who has received a wing recently know if this is true?

Thanks,
Paul
 
pfitzuscg said:
I messed up a few fuel tank Z brackets. I cleco'd and clamped to the spar and think they drifted some while match drilling. I should have bolted them in. Looking at the archives, it appears I'm not the first.

Anyway, alignment is not very good for the bolts so going to replace them. From the updated builder's manual, it appears that the replacement parts from Van's may be pre-drilled. Does anyone who has received a wing recently know if this is true?

Thanks,
Paul
Click to expand...
They are now pre-drilled. The end bracket is different than the others.
 
I would have killed to have mine pre drilled. The Z bracket process was one of the more difficult parts.
 
I remember doing a similar thing on my 9A tanks. Since each Z-bracket is individual, they all belong on their own set of holes - I got a couple of them swapped during the prime-and-reinstall process prior to mounting the tank, and then the trouble fitting the bolts began. They were JUST far enough different to prevent any semblance of cooperation.
 
airguy said:
I remember doing a similar thing on my 9A tanks. Since each Z-bracket is individual, they all belong on their own set of holes - I got a couple of them swapped during the prime-and-reinstall process prior to mounting the tank, and then the trouble fitting the bolts began. They were JUST far enough different to prevent any semblance of cooperation.
Click to expand...
I think there is good and bad about having made our own. I surely didn't push edge distance as much as Van's has which is going to make the outboard hole easier to bolt on. I however prefer the my hole placement where blind rivets are used.

I did mess up some of the Z brackets when I built my initial tanks, but I didn't it a difficult job.

Building new tanks is interesting as it shows just how much change has been done on the 7 that you would otherwise not see. The engineers are busy.
 
I didn’t know about these floating nutplates until way deep into the fuselage build. They would have saved me a lot of time
 
pfitzuscg said:
Thank you for that suggestion. That hadn't occurred to me as a fix.
Click to expand...

You’re welcome. Just be careful not to crimp the floating nutplate tabs when you squeeze/buck the mounting rivets. That’ll make them non floating anymore.
 
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