FAB, MA-4-5, 0-360A1A

I have an 0-360-A1A, Vans FAB , with MA-4-5 Carb.
My cowl is the very old type ( non ? pink ) with the scoop not fitted, for an RV-6.
The engine mount is also for an RV-6A. Vans told me that the 6 and 7 mount / cowl is the same and will fit.
See the picture below, my FAB seems to be to low and hit the nose gear leg.



The gap is 2 1/4 " from the top FAB plate to nose gear leg. I needed an .040 spacer from the Carb to FAB plate so it would sit flush.



See here with the air filter in, I have no room for the nose gear leg to move up at all.



Could some one please measure how much gap you have and post back.

That's probably about right, Jaimie. You'll find after getting it all built up that getting it on and off is a real pain in the butt. I have to rotate my FAB sideways to get it to clear the nosegear, then shift it up and straighten it out to line up the bolt holes.

I don't have the measurements, so my apologies for that. But you will find that it's a very tight fit.

Two different sumps...

One has the carb toward the rear of the sump, one the carb comes out the middle of the sump. Ask me how I found this out!! Looking at the sumps it very obvious.
Looks like you may have the one that comes out the rear of the sump. Even coming out of the middle, I had to glass a slight dibbit in the rear of my FAB.
Good luck!

On my 7A with the A1A I also needed to get a little clearance from the leg to the back of the FAB. Rather than cut and reglass a "bump in", I heated the area with a 1500 watt hair dryer and was able to soften and reform the back of the FAB. The epoxy glass can be reworked very well this way. My carb was in the middle of the sump.

Roberta

Thank you All,

I just had another look and my carb seem to also be at the front of the sump.



I know its not the best picture...

I guess I just make it fit. Open to any other ideas before I hack into it.

Jamie,

Based on the last picture you posted, the cowl has not been fitted yet. Is that correct? If so, don't mess with the FAB until after the cowl is in place.

If that is an old picture and the cowl is fitted, cut and fit as you need.

Here are some motivational pictures of what I went through fitting the O-360 FAB to my RV-9 w/ a James Aircraft Holey Cowl. In short, YOU CAN DO THIS!

OK, I have another problem. When I got the 6A engine mount and nose gear leg, the hole for the AN5-20 bolt in the gear leg was not drilled.
When I drilled the nose gear leg, I broke 3 drill bits. I got about 80 % through from one side when they broke. I was able to use the pilot hole to drill the other 20% back to the other side. I can see that both drilled holes are not inline, but the bolt does go through the hole so I can put the nut on.
After I drill through both mount and leg I noticed the the exit hole ( nearest to the firewall ) now looked like this: see picture.





Now im thinking, if I was to fit the correct 7A engine mount and nose gear leg, would this remove the interference problem FAB to nose gear, and the bottom cowl would sit better also.

Here is another pic showing the carb is very close to the front of the sump. I dont see that I could move the FAB plate any more forward.



Can ANY 7A 0-360A1A carb builders tell me if they had to mod the FAB and cowl to fit, or did if fit asis. As I dont want to spend 2K and still find the same faults.

P.S will a 7A mount use the same 6 x main bolt holes ( firewall ) as the 6A, or is that another problem.

Im almost ready to give up on this thing .....

Just happen to have that set up,....

Jamie, I have pretty much the exact set up. 7a mount 0-360 A1A and you can see plenty of clearance.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Hope this helps!

Bill S
7a on the verge,... !!

Thank you Bill for your picture. You have more room in that area than me.

I received a reply from Vans ( Ken ) he said I should try to mill the nose gear hole from AN5 to 3/8. So I hope to get that done within the a week.

Is it just my carb, or does every one have to cutout a second hole in the FAB plate for the bump at the rear of the carb ?

When I get it all back together, I will give an update.

BillSchlatterer said:

Jamie, I have pretty much the exact set up. 7a mount 0-360 A1A and you can see plenty of clearance.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Hope this helps!

Bill S
7a on the verge,... !!

Click to expand...

UPDATE

After all the problems I have had with the build, I was ready to give up. Just at the right time, I was able to talk to another RV builder, who put me back on track !

The first thing was to make another ( my 3rd go ) FAB plate offset as far as we could to the right ( looking aft )



Here it is all back together, much better.



It now does not touch the nose gear leg.



The last thing to do was make the scoop bigger. This is what we ended up with.



Things are looking much better now. If you ever get into a lull, like I did, give someone that has built one a call !
P.S Engine mount, nose gear leg hole, was also fixed at a local machine shop.