Engine Upper Mount Mod

Here's another tidbit I learned from John Spurling

when we took our ship to him for its final check and rigging. The rubber RotorWay provides you in the kit for the cup is just plain rubber and has a problem of sometimes of coming off causing the engine to all of a sudden have a 1/4" inch of slop. Thats 1/2" inch in belt tension and that's alot.

The belts would get looser and the engine would have much greater movement not to mention the metal to metal contact which sure can't be good.

The trick here is to use the rubber material RotorWay provided you with for making the muffler hanger straps out of. It has a metal reinforcement and doesn't fall out nor does it wear out so fast. I didn't have any of this material with me so Chris Stevens who was just beginning to build his ship in Tulsa was kind enough to loan me his from his kit so we could install it while we had the ship apart installing the electric clutch. Attaching this stuff is a real chore to say the least. First off you have to sand the rubber down thickness wise because its much thicker then the original stuff. Next trick is having or obtaining a rivet tool that you can clamp in a vice and still operate.

The third trick is be sure to use steel rivets,

I cant remember if RotorWay tells you to use steel rivets here but it definitely a must do installing this.  When you get it all fitting properly and the blade glue applied you clamp the whole thing in a vice using the vice to push the rivets in far enough to counter sink them into the hard rubber just the same as you do using the original stuff but it's way tougher to do with this other material. After letting it set up for the night it's ready for reinstallation in the ship and I'm told you'll never have to replace or worry about it again.

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