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Battery Box Problem - Anyone Else?

 
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Tim Olson



Joined: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 2869

PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 7:59 am    Post subject: Battery Box Problem - Anyone Else? Reply with quote

When you get to the firewall, you have to beware. I've been finding
more and more plans errors lately as I'm moving ahead. If there is
anyone up to the same spot I am, I am unlikely to be the only one with
this issue. If you also have this issue, I'm hoping to join up with you
and share the cost of some parts to repair it.

Let me explain:

In the plans, there are many areas on the stainless firewall that they
tell you "DO NOT DIMPLE". There are also areas on the underlying
support aluminum that they tell you "DO NOT COUNTERSINK".

The battery box gets riveted on to the forward side of the firewall
using countersunk rivets. The INTENTION is to countersink the battery
box and rivet it to the firewall. The reality, in the current version
of plans, is that you end up dimpling all those holes in the firewall,
and countersinking the aluminum supports under them. So, now you'll end
up with a battery box that is laid on top of countersunk/dimpled
holes...creating a gap, and then you countersink the battery box for the
actual AN426AD4 rivet.

So, DO NOT DIMPLE OR COUNTERSINK the holes for the battery box as the
plans tell you.

I emailed Van's support after finding this all out the hard way, and
after a few days I finally got a reply that I didn't really like. It
wasn't discussed with engineering...just off the cuff. The suggestion
was to just rivet those dimpled holes with nothing in them, but then
move the battery box over and re-drill new holes. The firewall supports
being somewhat structural, I wouldn't do this without engineering
blessing, but beyond that, now your battery box location is shifted and
who knows what may be affected later on.
From the discussions I've had with tech support, it sounds like they
are highly unfamiliar with the kit thus far, as you'd expect, because
they need to learn as they go just like we do. Only engineering knows
the intention, or structural concerns, so any RV-14 specific questions
need deeper investigation by them until they learn it too.

I did find a better fix. Genuine Aircraft Hardware sells some
Countersunk Repair Washers/Plugs, p/n LS5931A71, that are designed to go
into a countersunk hole if you later need to cover it with a flat
material or a round head rivet. It's a cone-shaped filler. It would
fix the issue nicely.

The only catch is, they are sold in 100 packs only, at about $56 per
pack plus shipping. We only need 19 to fix a battery box. If there are
enough of you out there who have dimpled this area, then I'll consider
ordering a 100 count pack of them and splitting it up. This being the
real fix, it would be good to do, but at almost 1/2 the cost of a new
battery I don't want to swallow it all alone if I don't have to.

Anyone else up to this stage with the same issue?

Tim


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 9:13 am    Post subject: Battery Box Problem - Anyone Else? Reply with quote

How's it coming Tim? I am going to be doing some Proseal this weekend on the firewall and finish riveting the rest of the side skins. It says to cleco the skins, hinges and shims in place, then do the Proseal. Seems like you may not want to have that on there before applying it, but I will have to look at it again later.

I called Genuine Hardware and got the marketing person's voicemail and told her they should make kits with those washers, maybe 25 of each of different sizes and they would sell more. We'll see what they say.

Stoney

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Tim Olson



Joined: 25 Jan 2007
Posts: 2869

PostPosted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 9:30 am    Post subject: Battery Box Problem - Anyone Else? Reply with quote

Hey Stoney,

Your intuition is correct. You can and should cleco the shims and
hinges on to verify that it all fits well, but, you'll have to
pull them off and un-cleco everything to get the proseal between
the firewall and the skins.

Another thing is that with the sides all clecoed up, it's harder
to get the gap to put in the proseal, so I had to remove clecos
back maybe 18" to make it more loose. So anyway, the moral is,
just don't make it too cleco'd up before you get to that step.
Might also be good to tighten those temporary bolts on the
longerons so that everything is at it's final position.

I haven't riveted the battery box on the firewall yet, but I did
make all the washers and then stuck them in place with JB
weld too. I gave it time to harden up and then I'll quick ream
the center holes clear of any material and I'll be set.
I'm glad that dimpling works too...that will help anyone
else caught. I just didn't want to try it and find out it
didn't, so glad others went first.

I've finished most of the riveting the sides. Just have to get
help to get the rivets done that are on the bottom sides of the
skin, and the lower longerons.

With a weekend starting tomorrow, I guess maybe I'll be seeing
how hard it is to attach that tailcone. Should be fun!
Tim
On 12/12/2014 11:11 AM, Stoney Ware wrote:
[quote]

How's it coming Tim? I am going to be doing some Proseal this
weekend on the firewall and finish riveting the rest of the side
skins. It says to cleco the skins, hinges and shims in place, then
do the Proseal. Seems like you may not want to have that on there
before applying it, but I will have to look at it again later.

I called Genuine Hardware and got the marketing person's voicemail
and told her they should make kits with those washers, maybe 25 of
each of different sizes and they would sell more. We'll see what
they say.

Stoney

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PostPosted: Fri Dec 12, 2014 9:40 am    Post subject: Battery Box Problem - Anyone Else? Reply with quote

Keep me posted. Another builder, "E" said a friend of his, that's way ahead of us, said it was a bitch.

Stoney
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