Little Part, Big problem

This here is an 1973 Rockwell Commander, and is used by the "Seed Company" moneyraisers to fly around and speak to donors.

At first glance this airplane looks pretty snazzy. However beneath this paint job lies a 1973 airframe which has been subject to quite a bit of corrosion. One of the problems with Commanders, is that the factory has quit making airplanes. So...you cannot get customer support from them anymore, nor can you buy parts from them. Parts are getting scarce with no one making new parts.

Take this little part for example....it's called a speed nut or push nut and its job is to put friction on a shaft in the fuel tank as seen in the picture on the right. One of these nuts fell was missing and subsequently set in motion a process which eventually led to not being able to faster the fuel cap on tank anymore. This is a problem because without a fuel cap, your $4/gallon fuel goes out your fuel cap rather than through your engine.

Can you guess how much this little Speed Nut costs??? 50 cents....thats right. Other than a few screws, there's not much that's cheaper than one of these speed nuts. The problem....No one really has them.

I spent close to 15 hours searching for a vendor who sold these speed nuts. Finally we found one in Texas, so we ordered it....it turns out though that he never had the part. we didn't find this out till two weeks later, when the part didn't show up. he lied about it.

So trial number two. Get the part from a junkyard. O yes sir, of course we have that part, we'll send it right over. 5 days later a fuel cap showed up. The order form had the right part #, but the part was not the right one.

Finally we got the part from another vendor....

However...look at the difference. The part on the left is the one they sent us. And the part in the middle is the original. So can you install the part? After much headscratching we decided to install it. but if you look at the picture above on the right and the one on the right above it...they definately fit differently.

When all was said and done.....I had spent close to 40 hours of labor on the airplane....and the airplane had been grounded for almost a Month. all for one 50cent piece of hardware.