Getting Hosed With Springs

Section 49 of the plans covers the instillation of the coolant components. The first task is to take the supplied length of 1" coolant hose and cut it into two lengths - 30" and 20" to make the FF-1208A & B coolant hoses respectfully. Once the hoses are cut, the FF-1208C springs are inserted into both hoses. The springs will hold the shape of the hose around bends and also prevent the hose from collapsing if the coolant system pulls a vacuum.  Both springs are to be positioned so the spring is down inside the hose 1" deep from the end of the hose. The longer 30" hose was done first followed by the 20" hose. This sounds like an easy task but it was not. The diameter of the springs is about the same as the inner diameter of the hose, so it barely fits inside the hose to begin with … add to that the hose was manufactured and wound on a reel which places a curved set to the hose that makes getting the spring inserted a total fight. It may have been of help if some slippery coolant were in the hose to make it a little slicker … but there was none at the hangar and no point in searching for any … because everyone else at the airport owns a plane that is air cooled.

Getting the spring 1" down inside the 30" FF-1208A hose was quite a fight.

The shorter hose was just as much of a fight and also created a little heartache, in that, I got hosed … after fighting to insert the spring into the 20" hose discovered the spring was too long for the hose in the first place. At this point the length of the hose was double checked and sure enough it was right at the required 20" … Should have checked the spring length beforehand, but the plans said nothing about cutting one of the springs shorter, so I got hosed so to speak.

Getting hosed … after fighting to insert this spring into the 20" FF-1208B hose discovered the spring was too long in the first place and had to struggle to get it out of the hose so it can be cut shorter.


After cutting the spring for the 20” hose it was inserted in the hose … this was the next day and I had a little coolant with me and used it to wet the inside of the hose prior to inserting the spring. The coolant certainly did help quite a bit, making it much easier to insert the spring … it was still a fight, but much easier than the previous day with the hose dry.


Moving on, the next item worked on was the cooler box door & hinge assembly. The door will allow control of the outflow of warm air from the radiator to enter the cockpit if cabin heat is desired.  The hinges require a lot of work in that they need to be cut, drilled and countersunk. The FF-1206A hinge is cut to 8" and the FF-1206B hinge is cut to 7 1/2". Wanting to keep my band saw blade sharp, I used the Dremel outfitted with a cutoff wheel to make the cuts then smoothed the edges on the Scotch-Brite wheel. A piece of stainless hinge pin is provided that needs to be cut and bent.

The cooler box door and hinge parts ready for drilling, countersinking and dimpling.

For the drilling and countersinking of the stainless parts, I would suggest using a drill press if one is available.

Using the drill press to match drill #40 the cooler box door to the FF-1206B stainless hinge.

Set up for countersinking the FF-1205B bracket using the drill press … one hole countersunk two to go.

All the cooler box door components drilled, dimpled and countersunk … ready to be riveted together during the next work session.