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Q-talk 90 - Cowl Flap - VW Case Studs

A friend of mine and I planned to install my new cylinder heads on the Revmaster. I know I've been needing to do that for ages, but the day had come when it would finally be done. One side was already on and while torquing down the other side, my young friend broke of the case stud right on the threads. Major "uh ohhhhh!" My friend was incredulous, and VERY apologetic, saying that he did not even have the full torques value yet when it broke. We did manage to get the stud out and moved on to another task to redeem time.

When I made a trip to the local VW speedster shop, I found the guys were very knowledgable about all aspects of VW's. When I waved around the remnants of my dead stud, the manager said, "Why do you want one of those? I can spot that lousy grade a block away." He further explained that a lot of engines were still out there with the inferior grad of studs that can not even take the full torque specified in the manual before they fail. Unfortunately, Volkswagon is still selling them. He asked me if I would want a much better grade of stud and brought out a whole new set that could be torqued to 26 foot pounds, WAY beyond what they would ever see in the airplane and won't break.

The better studs only cost about $26. You can imagine how relieved my friend was to know that it was not his fault.

Motto of the story, if Revmaster guys are flying with the older studs, better check the torque at your next annual condition inspection and I suggest replacement with the better ones before you have a failure

After trying three different sets of push rod tubes, the set designed for the 40 HP Type I engine appears to fit the best.

On a better note, I got my new Steve Whiteside antenna installed and tuned two weeks ago. It wound up with a VSWR of 1.9 up to 122mH, then about 2.1 VSWR the rest of the band up to 133mH. Not bad at all. When we rolled the plane out of the hanger and onto the ramp, ground reported that it sounded very clear. That news made my day. Finally, progress! And the thing was actually therapeutic to build!



You can order a printed copy of Q-talk #90 by using the Q-talk Back Issue Order Page.