Fuel valve bracket

[arborite]

Has anyone installed the latest fuel shutoff valve/gascolator bracket that is now being shipped with the QB kits? I did talk to Mark briefly, but would like to see pics of installed parts. The fit on mine isn’t to my liking, but maybe someone else has figured it out. I’m leaning toward making my own top bracket to hold the fuel selector. what have others done?
pics i can find are of previously built planes with different brackets.

Thanks


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[Mark Goldberg]

You don¨´t say what you do not like. It looks from the picture that the bracket might leave the fuel valve not where it needs to be vertically. But I really can not tell for sure from the picture. I am in Mexico at the kit factory now. Happy to help you with this next week. Mark

[David Swartzendruber]

I am also planning to make a new top bracket for the fuel selector. The one that came with the kit didn't position it at the height that I desired. I will machine my bracket out of a piece of aluminum bar stock or thick wall tubing and it will match the diameter of the flange around the fuel selector. It will basically be a spacer with some threaded mounting holes that will go between the mounting flange and the floor and will require some disassembly of the fuel selector to install. I saw another builder's (Al Lux) installation that had done this and it made a cleaner looking installation.

[DBeaulieu]

David, is there a reason for a certain desired height? Floor clearance, ergonomics, operational? Am getting to this part of the project and am curious...

Cheers!

[David Swartzendruber]

See post #6 below for my answer to DBeaulieu's question.

[PropMan]

I used the supplied mount and bracket. Here are a few pictures.

edit- looking closely, your bracket is different than mine. Hopefully my pics will help

[arborite]

Thanks everyone. Yes, the issue is the height of the bracket. if the fuel valve is positioned correctly on the lower plate, the bolt flange is higher than the bracket supplied. i was envisioning making one like the one in Propman’s picture. but before i did that, was hoping someone had found a way to make this one fit. Mark, I’ll talk to you next week as well.

[David Swartzendruber]

My hat section mounting bracket supplied with the kit is not as tall as shown by PropMan. With mine being shorter, the top of the gascolator would not be up against the bottom of the triangular mounting piece and would need a spacer to fill in the gap. That is why I was originally thinking it was not the right height. Since then, I have decided I would prefer it to be a little lower, just like the supplied bracket accomodates. The reason I think I would like it down a bit is to aid in routing fuel lines to the fuel valve. The lines have to go underneath the structural fuselage tubing and with the higher valve position, the lines would have to go back up to the port in the valve. Moving the valve down a little helps accomplish the goal of keeping the lines going downhill all the way to the valve. However, I am still planning to machine a new mount that will look like a round spacer because I like the looks of it better. I may end up at the same height that my shorter hat section bracket would place the valve at. This means I will also need to make a spacer to go on top of the gascolator.

[arborite]

Thanks David. I considered that as well. Another benefit with your setup is that it can add a small bit of compliance between the valve and gascolator to reduce stress on the pipe. do you think the gascolator will still be inside the lower boot cowl panel on the bottom? i’ll lay that out today and see how it looks.

[David Swartzendruber]

Do you think the gascolator will still be inside the lower boot cowl panel on the bottom?

That's the part that is unanswered at this point. I haven't been sure of my final height because I don't know how much room I have to work with and not poke through the belly skin. I won't really know until I start working on it. One thought is that it might not be too hard to lower the bottom skin just a bit. I think others have done that.

[arborite]

After a little filing to get the slot right, i reassembled as shown. this now makes sense. the gascolator will need spacers as you indicated, but i think that’s a good thing. the fuel inlet ports now clear the tubes better, too. measuring the clearance of the bottom of the gascolator to where i think the bottom skin will be, it looks like plenty of clearance, so i’m proceeding with this bracket. will trim sides square for attachment. don’t want to stack floorboards on top of the top bracket.

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[David Swartzendruber]

Another benefit with your setup is that it can add a small bit of compliance between the valve and gascolator to reduce stress on the pipe.

Could you clarify what you mean in the quoted statement above?

[arborite]

If the gascolator is directly bolted to the triangular plate and the fuel control valve is pressed hard against the top of the plate, any slight misalignment can put stress on the nipple linking the two. with the fuel valve free to move a little bit by bolting it to the top bracket which is much thinner, plus the standoffs between the gascolator and triangle plate, this allows for a slight misalignment in the nipple. i’m considering making the spacers out of a slightly softer material like Teflon.

[David Swartzendruber]

You don¨´t say what you do not like. It looks from the picture that the bracket might leave the fuel valve not where it needs to be vertically. But I really can not tell for sure from the picture. I am in Mexico at the kit factory now. Happy to help you with this next week. Mark

Mark, the area that could have been improved in my parts is that the slot in the triangular piece that the fuel valve and gascolator mount to was not the right width for the fuel valve to fit when positioned at the height dictated by the hat section bracket. Not too big of a deal because I just had to widen it. But if you're looking to make it better, having it the right width already would reduce the confusion about how it is all supposed to go together. A Bearhawktips article about it would also help because it could explain the need for a spacer on top of the gascolator.

[arborite]

I concur. the U slot on mine was also undersized, leading me to think the valve flange went on top of the plate, not floating below.

Mark, the kit has lots of great parts included that are not on Bob’s drawings, so it is a bit of an adventure figuring out the fitment intent sometimes. As an improvement suggestion, it would help to include drawings/sketches of those that were used to develop them. I will try to document some of these as I encounter them and add to the body of knowledge here.

[arborite]

think I figured out the proper height stack up. i made a 1/2” stand-off for the gascolator and dropped the valve down so the supplied bracket fits with trimming. So far i like this setup. IMG_0410.jpg IMG_0406.jpg IMG_0409.jpg

[Bcone1381]

That is Really nice work!!

[DBeaulieu]

Agree...nice work depicted. You guys saved me a bunch of head scratching...thanks! Now give me some tips on how to located the holes for the gascolator cap. It seems like that it will vary dependent on how tight my fittings are. Those being the pipe nipple, and two port fittings. I plan on using rubber matting for my spacer between the floor and top of gascolator. also considering having the flanges of the bracket under the floor (see pic), but haven't checked for clearance issues yet.

Now, here is something to ponder...it seems that to R&R that fuel valve, the floor will have to be removed to allow the valve to slide forward out of the slot in the aluminum plate and the bracket will have to be removed as well. Is it worth considering cutting a slot in the floor and covering the slot with a removable plate, as well as attaching the bracket with screws and nutplates (assume mounted on top of flooring) to allow for removal without lifting the
floor? Let me hear your thoughts, or possible other ways to facilitate maintenance of this valve. Cheers! Fuel Valve mount 1.jpg Fuel Valve mount 2.jpg

Dave from Maine

[spinningwrench]

Looks like the Quickbuild fuel valve mount has changed. I simply put mine on aluminum standoffs. I am using a 1/4" Baltic Birch floor which will sit flush underneath the valve bezel.

[Bcone1381]

I remove barriers to future maintaining when I build. So my floor boards are easy to remove. I split some of them in order to achieve this goal because if left full size they were a pain to get out. The split/joint has a repair and everything is secured with screws.