RE: Welcome to Club SAITO !
Ernie:
Perhaps I just haven’t noticed it’s being nasty, but the only place I notice any amount of rudder coupling on the US120 (older, heavy version) is in knife edge. My normal flying always uses coordinated rudder and aileron for turns, ranging to opposite rudder and aileron for a slip. Don’t know why yours would be any different.
Thanks for the kind words about the pictures, I am still being impressed by the camera.
Tom:
Thanks, so far I’m really pleased with the new camera.
Piper:
In any case pull the rocker covers and douse the rockers and valve stems, fill the push rod tubes. Use your preferred after run oil for this.
If the engine feels “Grindy” when you turn the crank, pull the carb and back plate, squirt some solvent into the rear bearing and clean it as well as you can. If you ran it with a castor blend fuel it may clean out fine. Before you put it back together dump an ounce or so of after run oil in the case with the crank pointed down, this will wet the cam and tappets. Reinstall the back plate without dumping the oil.
If it feels smooth, then go ahead, run the engine and see what happens. May be fine, but there could be rust in the bearings. If yes, you’ll hear their noise before long.
Excerpt from “Saito Notes:”
Valve adjustment
You need 1.5 mm and 2 mm Allen wrenches, and a 4 mm box wrench. An open end 4 mm will work, but the box is safer.
The Allen wrench sets I use most commonly are the Bondhus 10687 ball drivers, and the 12592 folding set. These or equivalents are easily available from your LHS or mail order.
The box wrench set I recommend is from Sears, their number 42339 set of ten combination wrenches, approximately $15 from your local store.
Feeler gauge? I remembered an old trick we used on fuel mechanical governors to set the air gap - the cellophane from a cigarette pack. It's almost all 0.001" thick. Tried it in a Saito, works great.
Double it to get the 0.002" needed, use it as your feeler and adjust the valve. After adjustment if it slides out with no drag it's too loose. A little drag is fine, if the valve is too tight the cellophane tears. Fail safe adjustment and checking.
Concerning your “Serious Money.” When you buy a camera just to take pictures of toy engines, and once in a while toy planes at the field, $500 for the camera and accessories IS serious money. At least I think it is. I have really blown a wad on cameras three times. Bought a Bolex H-16 Rex5 with two 400 foot mags, a wild motor and a sync motor with two battery packs, an Angenieux 12-120 lens, and Halliburton cases for the lot. Then a Sony three tube video camera and its separate CCU, and a ½” reel-to-reel recorder. Got a Canon 12-120 lens for that one, with motorized zoon, iris, and focus Everything battery operated, but it would also run from house power. Finally, there was my Nikon, bought with a batch of accessory lenses. I still have the Nikon outfit, and I came out OK when I sold the Bolex and its kit. I literally GAVE the Sony stuff away. Why? Camcorders made it totally obsolete, nobody wanted to lug three heavy pieces around and bother with reel tapes. Bought the video stuff way too soon. That’s one of the reasons I waited so long for a decent digital camera – just a short time ago the same capabilities would have reached your $3K price.
Bill.