Hartmut & All,
This week My A&P demonstrated for me the method of restoring oil
prime (which my 'Coupe had been losing if it was not flown for ~3
wks, but lost after just 2 weeks recently, which was enough to
motivate me to learn to do it myself.) We used the method described
by Wayne del Rossi on Hartmut's web site, www.ercoupe.info. I
thought adding a few comments by someone new to doing mechanical
things might help the next person who has to learn it from scratch.
(Hartmut: feel free to excerpt for your web site if you want.)
List of Tools & Materials required: safety wire 32/1000 gauge,
safety wire pliers (they spin), a small wire cutter, a torque wrench,
lots of rags, gloves if you don't like getting hands oily, an oil
can, and (optional) a container to catch oil runoff -- a cut-off
plastic oil bottle was suggested to me, but anything like that should
do. To inject the oil, my A&P suggested I use a trigger-type metal
oil can next time, rather than the squirting/siphon bulb from the
auto parts store which I used this time, because the latter was
really messy and unsatisfactory, although it did accomplish the
purpose; the orifice you need to get the oil into requires poking the
squirter in uphill a bit, and squeezing the bulb in that position
resulted in lots of the oil coming out the side where the rubber bulb
joins the tube. For the same reason, a turkey baster would be really
messy but it might work, although the tip would likely be too big to
really get into the orifice.
Steps: observe where the safety wire is attached on the white spin-
on oil filter adapter and remember those spots, then cut & remove the
safety wire. Use the wrench on the big knob in the middle of the
filter adapter to loosen the whole filter adapter; it screws off as
one piece (i.e. the big knob that looks like a bolt head doesn't
undo, but applying the wrench to it will loosen the whole adapter.
When removing the adapter, be prepared to catch, or mop up, the oil
that will spill out of it. Removing it reveals 2 pea-sized holes;
I'm told the left-hand one is where more oil needs to be squirted in,
but it won't hurt if you squirt into both. The oil can be drawn up
out of the oil reservoir neck where you put in fresh oil, or use
fresh. It only took getting maybe 1/4 cup of oil to go into the
hole; with the rubber siphon bulb at least that much more came out or
spilled over at the same time. When you've done that, screw the big
white filter adapter back on (A&P said we did not need to fill it
with oil first), then use the torque wrench to that same center knob
to tighten the whole thing; when the torque wrench makes a click,
it's enough. (Others will add here what the correct torque is, but my
A&P gave me a torque wrench that's already adjusted to the correct
setting.) Then put a loop of new safety wire through the same
attachment points where the original one went, grab both ends of the
wire very firmly with the safety wire pliers, and use the spinning
mechanism on it to twist the safety wire. When it's twisted, cut it
off about 1/2" from the last point it's attached to, and bend the
tail back on itself so there's no sharp point sticking out to cut the
next hand that goes near it.
I realize this is probably more detail than most of you need, but
hope it will help the next non-mechanical Ercoupe owner who has to
resort to restoring the oil prime by him/herself.
Linda
N3437H (Sky Sprite)
L.A.
