Replacing the engine mount

[Wheels]

trim tab sounds doable and pretty fool proof. Thanks.

[HighWing]

I have a serious p-factor to the left and need to stand on the right rudder enough at cruise that its annoying.... Any comments?

My first Model IV had the left turn tendency - as does my new one. I sort of expected it as when I was laying out my engine mount - home brew - I found that the kitfox engine mount has no thrust offset, vertically or horizontally. Not being the engineer, I did as Kitfox did and built it with no offset.

While flying my first airplane, I often imagined a rudder trim that would warp the ribs in the rudder modifying the airfoil shape from symmetrical to asymmetrical by degree to give some "lift" to the right side. I did the deed and it works well and in my experience, it doesn't take a lot to trim the rudder to reduce that constant right foot pressure. Most guys who have added trim have riveted a blade tab to the trailing edge of the rudder.

What I did on the first Model IV

[Wheels]

thank you Highwing. I think that looks like something I can use. I assume you took off the fabric to do all the work, but the drawing looks like maybe it was externally mounted without a fabric patch, am I crazy? Well, am i crazier than you first thought I was?

[HighWing]

Painted and riveted externally. I did start the bend with the a sheet metal brake.

[Wheels]

thanks again sir. Ok, one more item. I had a bracket on the old engine mount that was part of the original air box for carb heat. The new mount doesn't have it so I have no where to attach my CDI for security on the left side. I guess I"ll just make a bracket and screw it into one of the two holes at the engine lift point, but do you have any other ideas?

[kitfox5v]

Don't care too much for the white ground wire in the bottom photo. too much tension and angle.

[HighWing]

The picture shows the ignition modules mounted to the builder fabricated brackets that were in the original builders manual rather than the airbox mount. Due to vibration issues and the non Tefzel wire in the modules resulting in frequent broken wires, most guys moved the modules to the firewall side of the engine mount. Since the runs will be longer you can get by by shuffling the existing wires. You will likely only have to buy a couple of feet or so of new ignition wire to make the swap.

[mr bill]

I mounted the ignition modules per the pictures, directly to the engine mount, using rubber vibration isolators, simple and very secure. This is on a model lV.

[Wheels]

I like the module movement to the upper mount position. I havn't done much electrical so it appears a little out of my league but up until last March, everything else was too.
Ok back to the plane. The white ground wire was a test wire to see if I could back up the ground strap/bracket that broke in flight. I posted about that non event. It isn't staying on the plane but a real ground strap will be going there as well as the bracket.
I'm getting all new hose and all new clamps with the "clamp it" tool and then the fun really begins. So much for flying by next friday.

[Wheels]

Haven't changed the module location yet but I did get the Lord mounts on the engine mount and the mount is on the engine. I am pretty sure the guy who invented the lord mount was in fact an atheist.