Engine Parts Coming Off, Landing Gear Details & Johnson Bar

Sometimes progress moves swiftly, sometime it doesn't. Between Glenn and I, we put in about 24 hours over the weekend, but it looks like we went backwards. In fact, only a couple of parts went on and a bunch of pieces came off. Some gear push rods came off (once again), were worked over properly, then put back on. One step forward--two steps back, but now done correctly.

 I started the weekend piddling with some interior sub-projects--taking the masking tape off of the circular ceiling air vents that I kept in place while painting, looking over the interior parts that need refurbishing, and painting the Johnson bar. The Johnson bar is a name given to Mooney's manual landing gear lever, about two feet long. The good news about these old J-bars is that they are pretty much indestructible. Pilots like it that way. The handle is a "waffle pattern" chrome plated grip, similar in size to motorcycle grips. To retract the gear after takeoff when the handle is in a vertical position (gear down), the pilot pushes in a horizontal pin with his right thumb unlocking the handle, then pushing the spring-resistive handle downward about an inch clearing the lock, then forcefully pulling the arm aft and down to a horizontal position (gear up) on the floor of the cockpit. Simple! In these old Mooney's, they always look worn and dingy from sweaty grips. As we don't want the added task of removing the J-bar to re-chrome and paint it, we are opting to paint the bar in place. Maybe we can get some chrome paint for the handle.

I wish there was an easy way to get the Johnson bar extracted for chrome-plating the grip and properly painting the bar. I managed to sand all the old paint off, shown in its 'before' state here.

The etch primer is thin and came out great. Not shown is the finished creamy white top coat that matches the exterior. I used poor lighting and it showed. I'm going to sand it again and repaint. Perhaps a better color, too.

All of the seats came in from Airtex Interiors. Taupe fabric and vinyl. I'll be excited to see them all stuffed and on their frames, probably not for a few weeks.

We've decided to strip the exterior panels that we already took off the nose bowl area and the underbelly. We have this notion of polishing some of the exterior rather than painting the whole fuselage. We'll see. Unfortunately, I don't have the 'after' photos. Maybe next week.

Glenn spent his time extracting various parts from the engine. We're going to be sending in the exhaust system for reconditioning.

Note the discoloration on the exhaust pipe. This copper gasket between the pipe and the cylinder looks like it has been leaking so all will be replaced.

The entire baffling system, aluminum and rubber, will be reconditioned and/or replaced.

The alternator will be replaced with a Plane-Power and the starter will be a light weight Sky-Tec. Both of the old units were working, but with everything else taken apart, it's the right time to start fresh. And these manufacturers are both superb.

Propeller and center hub, baffling, alternator, starter and exhaust system all gone.