Don Presten

I am going to be removing the engine on my NexSTAR (See bubbles in fuel line thread for reasons).

I looked it over closely last night and see that at first glance, this is not going to be easy. 3 of the 4 screws that attach the engine to the mount appear to be accessable, but the 4th located directly under the needle valve is not. I then noticed that one of the screws attaching the needle valve to the engine also appears to be inaccessable - catch-22.

Before I tackle this, has anyone performed this removal before and if so, any tricks you can post to prevent me from doing something stupid like stripping a screwhead or something, would be much appreciated.

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

We remove the three screws, remove the one retainer bar and pivot the other one away from the engine. We can then remove the engine with a little wiggling. It's a bit tricky, but it works.

Don Presten

Thanks!

By the way...this is my second NexSTAR. I crashed my first under instruction and made a claim under the NexStar warentee. I just wanted you to know that my phone call to your outfit was handled very professionally and when I recevied my brand new plane, I was a very happy camper. Your outfit was a pleasure to deal with.

It is also nice to know you folks hover in the RCU forums as well - your advice is much appreciated.

A satisfied customer,

Don Presten

OK - I was able to remove the engine without too much difficulty, but putting the engine back in resulted in a broken fuel line nipple on the needle valve manifold (can't believe that thing is made of plastic.)

The mounting screw in question is located directly below the needle valve manifold. There does not seem to be a way to remove that manifold (this granting access to the engine mounting screw) and then reattaching the manifold afterwords (engine case and firewall prevents access to all but one screw that mounts the manifold to the engine).

I have ordered the $18 manifold assembly but am hard-pressed to be able to figure out what steps are required to remount the engine without breaking it again.

I have tried to draw a picture of the issue - those owning NexStar's will understand the "less that perfect" design of the engine mounting system - if the regular screw holds built into the engine case were used, then no problem, but with this new fangled Special IsoSmooth™ engine mount, the screw attachment is now directly under the needle valve manifold.

Anyone have experience with this? HELP!

Broken

Use a smaller bolt that can slide easily through the hole. Tighten it with a self locking nut. I do this for of my student trainers- It makes swapping an engine easy...

greenboot

My Feedback: (1)

Maybe you should just get rid of the IsoSmoothâ„¢ engine mount and bolt it directly to the mount.

BTW, Nice picture.

Tom

Don Presten

Duh... This is a hell of an idea! I think I might take it one step further and bring the screw in from the bottom - in that case, I can use the same screw...thread it in and put a nut, saftey washer and some med locktight from the top.

Thanks for the solution!

Broken

That should do it- No worries about the bolt comming loose- even with a self locking nut it will hold with no problems...

I find that using the small wrench used by rc cars to be perfect for the job- Pulling an rc plane engine should be simpler than swapping engines in a chevy (right)?