TheParrot

Just got a Powerline edge 540 46. I've got everything else done and am ready to install the engine. It came with bolts and blind nuts for the engine mount. However, there is no way to get behind the firewall to put the blind nuts on. The instructions show the firewall removed from the plane.[sm=confused.gif] Can someone who has assembled this plane clarify how this is supposed to work?

majortom-RCU

My Feedback: (40)

I've done this on a few planes. Drill your holes for the diameter of the barrel of the blindnuts. Take an appropriate length of stiff wire (steel pushrod works nicely) and bend a short ell at one end. Slip the blindnut down the wire with the base of the nut against the ell. Poke the other end of the wire through the fuselage and out the firewall. Pull the blindnut up into the hole and tug it into the hole as well as you can, enough to get at least a little bite of the nut's teeth into the wood. Gently slide the wire back out, and hope the blindnut stays put. Then hold the blindnut in place with a fingertip if you can reach in that far, or get a piece of dowel and use that to keep the blindnut from falling out. While you're holding the blindnut in place from the back, gently thread in the mounting screw from the front, with a flat washer under the head. Get the thread engaged, then turn until you can snug the blindnut into the hole. Then tighten the mounting screw firmly to draw the teeth of the blindnut all the way into the wood. That one's done. Now do the other three.

This is a bit of a pain, but at least it's workable. I'd love to hear if anyone has a better method. There is a tool called a slide hammer or something like that, that could be made up if you had a lead slug, something weighing at least a few ounces. You'd drill a hole in the lead, just big enough to pass the pushrod through after it had its threaded end poked out from behind the firewall. Then thread a nut onto the threaded end of the pushrod, then slide the lead slug up against the nut with enough force to pound the teeth of the blindnut into the wood of the firewall. Once the teeth have a good bite, then finish the job with the mounting screw as described above. If I were doing ARFs like this on a production basis, it would be worth my while to make up a slide hammer.

Sturtz

My Feedback: (20)

No better ideas here Tom. Unless of course you have a small child that will hold still long enough to help you. They can get their hands in the small areas without effort.
Now getting them to do it right is another story. Most friends I know with small kids have a lock on their modeling room.[:@]

jrf

My Feedback: (551)

Another way is to CA the back of the blind nut to the end of a 1/4" dowel and use the dowel to put the blind nut into the hole from the rear. Thread the screw into the blind nut from the front and tighten. The screw will push the dowel off the end of the blind nut as it pulls the blind nut up tight against the back of the firewall.

Jim