B-26K Counter-Invader Restoration ("Special K")

[A26 Special K]

Here is a flashback for Amy! Rand is enjoying this so much, he volunteered to do it again! Well, not so much. Along the left side of the picture, all of the old military avionics are in place. Amy spent so much time back there that we were going to put in a change of address with the Post Office and put her Zip code on the doghouse door. Still sounds like a good idea even if she doesn't live there anymore! JR

[A26 Special K]

Weather permitting, some of the team will be working Black Friday to escape going shopping with their better halves... I meant to say, they will be working because of their extreme dedication to hanging the elevators on K. They will also hang the nose gear doors and check for fit. We will try to take the airplane off the jacks soon and see if we can tow outside and put some fuel back in the tanks to check for leaks after many of the lines have been changed, pumps and fuel selectors have been overhauled.
Speaking of shopping, you might simplify matters if you ordered a Special Kay T shirt for Xmas. We have all sizes currently. Go back a few pages to see the shirt. PM me if interested. Everybody have a great Turkey Day and may the Cowboys somehow win... again. Yours Truly from the Great Republic, JR

[A26 Special K]

Ta Dah!! Rand, JR, David A and Ray hung the right elevator today among other accomplishments!!! Beautiful job fellas! Turned out to be a very nice day at the hangar and there were quite a few visitors. Will post some more pics tomorrow. One setback though is that the right main gear actuator decided to leak so that has been removed and a new set of seals will have to be ordered. Better to find it now than later I suppose. The system had remained under pressure over the week so this tested it out sorta by accident. Tomorrow should be even be nicer for the team to work. Drop on by and see what we are doing. The invite is always out. BTW, next Saturday, Dec 7, VFM will host the Jill Laflin 5K Celebrity Run for those inclined. Some NBA celebs may appear. Sign-in's start at 7 am. Run starts at 8 am. It's going to be cold that morning so perfect for a run all the way around Meacham Field, Ft Worth. Glad to be in TX, the other JR

[A26 Special K]

And here is the gang hanging the right elevator. Today, they took the left back off to make some adjustments but it is back on now. It was a nice warm day in the hangar so a lot got done. We had an ol fashioned Southern lunch of fried chicken, tator salad, cranberry salad, Vanilla Pudding, Pineapple chunks and Sweet Tator Pie. Washed it down with some ice tea! Hmmm, we seemed to have gotten more done before lunch than afterwards, now that I think about it. Can't imagine why. But heck, it was a good day and we are thankful. JR

[A26 Special K]

Ray got the towel rack back on so the avionics guys can work in the radio rack area in the empennage. Rand had to do some clean up from all the rivets that were drilled out or Cherry rivets installed on some of the patches that were made on the fuselage. Pieces were all over the tail area when he crawled back to work on the horizontal stabilizer carry thru spar. Guess the cleaning lady didn't make it by last week. Anyway, JR thought we might not want all kinds of FOD floating around back there to jam up something. The other JR

[A26 Special K]

Never know what the cat is going to drag up, but our ol buddy Mark came to visit from Shreveport. He has a job working on ATR's there now. Glad to see him. He was very impressed with our progress since he left. We are, too! Put him to work, of course! JR

[A26 Special K]

Glad to have Big Mike back from Alaska as well. He made up all new vacuum hoses for the cockpit this week. That is just one more big step before re-installing the instrument panel. Oh, the other big news for the week, Bendix King said they are interested in helping with the installation of their KLR-10 Lift Reserve System. Wow, be nice to have some form of stall warning system on the 26. This sounds ideal, but where to place it will be the big question for their engineers. JR

[A26 Special K]

Ray is building a doubler for the installation of the VOR antenna. We found an original antenna out in Florida so Ray thought we needed a doubler plate on the inside of the mounting plate to make sure those high speed passes at airshows don't break it off.... drool drool.... slobber slobber.... can hardly wait to do that and blow up stuff. EEhaw, the wall of fire routine just is so impressive!! Just hope we don't burn up the airfield like a certain Oscar Deuce driver we know.

[A26 Special K]

Here's the antenna from the previous post. JR

[A26 Special K]

Here is one of our pesky hydraulic leaks. This is an aux hyd pump driven by an electric motor that was not present in the stock WWII A-26's. It is capable of running the system in the event of both engine driven pumps failing. Then below this level is the hand pump. JR took this all apart and replaced the seal between the electric motor and the pump, but fluid leaked again so there is some kind of problem in the drive shaft area to the motor. Better to find it now than later, we reckon. The other JR

[A26 Special K]

Notice anything different?? Yep, the doghouse canopy is now in place. When Jamie gets thru installing the old mil radio gear there, we will install the new glass we have for the side panels. Starting to look like an airplane again with the elevators hung and the doghouse covered! We also got our new nose tire mounted and the wheel installed today. This gives us three good legs. Getting closer to the day we can lift the left engine off to work on the nacelle behind it. JR

[A26 Special K]

Here is a little closer view of the rear gunners area or "doghouse" as we call it. Most of the old nav radios are installed. The intercom wires have been run and now Jamie is cleaning up the old oxygen lines. With a ceiling of 30,000 ft in the book, we kept wondering why until it dawned on us that the airplane was used for mapping and hi alt recon photos. Duh... what were we thinking. The Nimrods and others told us they never used the oxygen system except maybe to test the theory that breathing 100 % oxygen would relieve certain headaches, but they were always at fairly low level looking for trucks to make flat. All K's were delivered with two noses.. glass and solid so they could do either job. JR

[woodie]

The other JR:
Are you saying that you didn't replace the shaft seal on the pump and only replaced the gasket between the motor and pump? I am a retired "bubble-chaser" (name given to hydraulic mechanics and referring to the bubbles that are on the id tape on hydraulic lines) and have fixed many pumps in my time.
I am not sure what type pump this is exactly but most had a replacable shaft seal that could be replaced back there and some kits may still be available. Some kits came with a special rounded plastic knob so you can put the seal in without damaging it when going over the end of the shaft (you first have to remove the splined shaft that goes up into the electric motor by popping the lock ring out) However, sometimes there is wear on the shaft where the seal rides and you might not be able to do anything but have it rebuilt with a new shaft. It shouldn't be that hard to fix otherwise. Woodie

Here is one of our pesky hydraulic leaks. This is an aux hyd pump driven by an electric motor that was not present in the stock WWII A-26's. It is capable of running the system in the event of both engine driven pumps failing. Then below this level is the hand pump. JR took this all apart and replaced the seal between the electric motor and the pump, but fluid leaked again so there is some kind of problem in the drive shaft area to the motor. Better to find it now than later, we reckon. The other JR

[A26 Special K]

Woodie, everything you suggested has been tried as far as seals go. The problem is that this particular hyd pump is not on the 1965 airplane and was one of those substutions made because the original was not available. We have searched all of the internet data bases for inventory and can't even find a shop to overhaul it, much less a kit so that we could do it ourselves. So now, we have to try one more time with new seals and see what it does while looking for another substitute pump. Who woulda thunked that would have been a problem. Just another small issue to solve, but I have every confidence that JR will figure it out. Thanks for your input. The other JR

[A26 Special K]

Ray got a trial mounting of the VOR antenna on the dorsal ... or is it ventral side of the empennage? I can never remember the proper term. Don't have the Duck Driving Lady around to correct me. Anyway, Ray got it on the airplane to see how well his doubler on the inner side works and so far it is looking great. He removed it so that nobody would run into it since we aren't used to having that antenna there. Somebody would no doubt poke one end in the eye. It is kinda like my mother telling me to never run with an open knife, carry scissors in my pocket or shoot my BB gun at anything or anybody OR else. I got the OR else more than once before I learned. Looking good, huh? JR