Service bulletin

[Steve Pierce]

Steve, are you going with flush attachment screws with the nut plates and eliminating all the rivets where the boot cowl is attached to the firewall?

Lou S.

Yes, #4 countersunk screws.

[Lownslow]

I am considering that too, which would lend to dimpling the boot cowl attchment holes rather than counter-sinking, in my opinion. Should make a nice installation.

Lou

[Steve Pierce]

Right, I would not countersink. Might not even need to dimple if installing anti chafe tape under the screws like Piper did.

[taildraggerpilot]

I dimpled the boot cowl and countersunk the angled flange of the firewall. I attached the boot cowl to the firewall with #4 100 degree csk machine screws. I also bonded a P-seal (bulb) to the back of the firewall flange so when the boot cowl and flange were fastened together, the P-seal compressed making a nice tight seal at the boot cowl firewall interface. I made a stainless firewall and fabricated new angle flanges using aluminum bulb extrusion. The extrusion is thicker than the standard piper sheet metal angles, which allowed me to countersink the flange for the dimpled boot cowl fasteners.

As Steve mentioned, you probably wouldn't need to dimple because of the chafe seal, but with everything countersunk, you won't have high spots as the chafe wears in.

[GREGOLC]

Looking for photographs and/or more detail of the installation if Piper Kit 754237 or it's Univair equivalent U14972-000, U14972-001 & U14973-000. Univair has no installation instructions available. Thanks.

Larry



QUOTE=JohnW;25998]I haven't seen one of those kits from Piper since about 1975. But as far as a "picture is worth a thousand words", the PA-22 Parts catalog does as good a job as anything else illustrating how this "kit" is installed. The "kit" was the three pieces shown on the PA-22 PC as Fig. 10, items 52 and 53 (unusually each piece did not have it's own "Item No.", and that is because this setup started out life as the aforementioned "kit", and was added to the PC when the Factory began installing them as standard production parts. The two "bottom" pieces are illustrated as the same Item, but are separate LH and RH pieces under different "dash numbers". The rest of the kit was simply the PeeKay screws to mount them and a couple "hold-to-start", flat type, Tinnerman plates.

This "kit" just adds the three-piece molding around the front edge(s) of where the boot cowl meets the firewall angle, It simply "curls around the edge", thus preventing motor oil and other "unmentionables" from getting between the lap and entering the interior area. This is how the fiberglas insulation would get soaked with oil and become a fire trap. Oh, ya know, I think it also had a tube of Hucky-Pucky for the firewall holes...but I can't IMAGINE it having a shelf-life that would still be good!

You might be surprised that it is already installed! It isery rare for these airplanes to have been recovered several times since 1957 and NOBODY put on the "moldings" (but not unheard of). Again, all it is, is the three molding pieces attached at the front edge of the boot cowl edge to "shed" any engine compartment fluids, eliminating the fire hazard.

If I recall correctly, there was a "second requirement" to that AD speaking to "puttying the holes in the firewall where cables, wiring, et c pass through the firewall. This would remain in effect after kit installation (it is "standard practice", anyway!), but opening up the cowls is "terminated" for the purposes of the inspection, as it is no longer recurring after the moldings are installed (but that sure is a good thing to do-to look under the floor in the pax compartment on the Annual. There are brake hoses, and some pretty heavy-duty current carrying wire in there that should get looked at. But the moldings simplify the Inspection, no doubt.

So...to "sum up", you need one each Piper p/n 14973-00 (Item -53 in the PC, Fig. 10) and one each of Item -52
(which is one each of p/ns 14972-00 and 14972-01). These items are available from Univair (add another "zero" at the beginning of these dash numbers for the Univair part number. -00 becomes -000; -01 becomes -001; ALL Univairs part numbers are like that), and as far as "how does it go on?", in lieu of the poor sketch the kit contained...the best thing you can do is to find is a PA-22 that you can open the side cowl on, and look for yourself. It gets "captured in place" so you can remove the cowlings without removing the "seal moulding" (which is what Piper called it). Honest, that's all there was to this kit (plus standard hardware to attach the moldings), except for a pretty poor sketch that left a LOT to your imagination. Colts used the EXACT SAME piece parts and attach hardware, so if you have one of those "handy" to look at rather than a TriPacer, they are identical, and ALL of those came from the Factory with this "kit" installed (or, they DID...no guarantee someone didn't have them in the "Where to Hell did THOSE go on the airplane?" box after they cleaned up after the last recover job....but they SHOULD all have them installed).[/QUOTE]

[GREGOLC]

Looking for photos or any additional detail on installing the Piper Service Kit 754237 or it's Univair equivalent U14972-000, U14972-001 & U14973-000.

Thanks.

Larry

[Glen Geller]

Looking for photos or any additional detail on installing the Piper Service Kit 754237 or it's Univair equivalent U14972-000, U14972-001 & U14973-000.
Thanks.
Larry

Larry,
I used the website search function with "161A" and found a few threads...
Some pics on Pg 2 of this one:
https://www.shortwingpipers.org/foru...dic-inspection