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In a message dated 2/13/99 9:42:14 PM, you wrote:

<<I have six
AN7-23A Bolts in the collection that are 7/16" in diameter but are too
large by a 64th or so to fit the mount.  Are these the correct bolts and is
it normal to drill/ream out the mount for them to fit?  For mounting the
nose wheel does it matter if the flax and stainless steel are in place
first or is okay to use the 1/4" phenolic and mount to that?>>

I installed the nose wheel with the original engine mount bolted directly to
the plywood firewall -- no fiberfrax or stainless.  A couple of years ago,
actually.

A few months ago I installed the Fiberfrax and Stainless on my 360 firewall.
When I did, I put two AN-970 washers between the steel and the plywood
firewall per the instruction manual (with the fiberfrax removed locally, of
course).  It really looks good with a non-dimpled stainless sheet.  When I did
this I had to replace the AN7-23A bolts with a longer bolt.  Oh well.  The
nose gear continues to work perfectly, so I say the answer to your question is
"it doesn't matter if the fiberfrax or stainless is in place".

I also replaced the short engine mount with the extended mount last month.
One of the bolts on the new mount (and several on the old) did not pass
cleanly thru the hole in the mount.  On the new mount it was simply a minor
burr on one end of the tube -- a drill bit cleaned this up easily.  The old
mount actually needed the holes opened up slightly.  

Maybe I'm just a hacker but I just ran a drill bit thru it with a hand drill.
I don't see any reason to spend big bucks for a reamer here.  If you have one,
go ahead and use it, but a regular drill worked fine for me!

Good luck.  It's very satisfying to put the engine mount on and cycle the nose
gear, even if it is by hand.

- Rob Wolf
rwolf99@aol.com