kahloq

I have just finished fixing all the little things that happened on the belly landing yesterday. As noted before, the header nut for the muffler was completely back out, but the tube was still kinda inside the exhaust port so it was at least still providing some pressure to the tank.
Inspecting the plane:
The flight pack was knocked loose from it hold down location, the gyro was also knocked loose, and I had to bend the keleo metal strap a little to get the muffler header nut thing to line back up to the cylinder port. Ok....so....while Im not sure if this is the cause of it backing out, there was a rather thick black metal ring in the cylinder port that would not allow the keleo header nut to thread back onto the exhaust port. I believe this is a spacer and probably was included with the muffler. As such, I would have put it on according to instructions provided in the box. But, as a result of it being there, I dont think there was near enough thread grip for the header nut to stay put. Once I removed the muffler away from the motor, I was abe to see that the spacer ring was all kock-eyed.....assumingly from the disturbance of the belly landing. Anyhow....seeing as there wasnt much space to thread the header nut on with it in there, I removed the spacer ring and simply locktited the header nut and tightened it into the cylinder exhaust port pretty good. I tightened it good, but was a little leary of tightening too much and possibly stripping it. So....we'll see if it holds.

Now....on to the retracts. One was still good...no problems. The other one, the metal ball link piece(and screw) were completely missing off of the servo arm. So, this is the reason the gear wouldnt extend back down. I had locktited the little screw, but, it obviously backed off somehow(possibly loosened the locktite from the nose over occurance the last time the plane was at the field).
I replaced both the black plastic ring/thread piece as well as the ball link assembly from a spare set of the P-51 gear I have lying around. Surprisingly, I was able to get a better geometry of the servo arm/ball link/pushrod assembly to the retract servo and gear mech with these little replacements then i was previously. Yay, a good thing.

So, everything is back up and running so to speak. The plane is ready to make another sortie...possibly later this afternoon. I will be checking the rpm's as I may have to adjust the needles again, but maybe the loss of power was simply the header nut having backed out.