108-2 Cowl Latches

[BobYoung]

I had trouble latching the cowl on 9366K, after reassembly. After several hours of frustration, I discovered that half of the cowl latches were 3" long and the other half 3 1/4" long. I went to the Univair catalog to see what went where, but the catalog has just cowl latches, and no option as to different sizes. After considerable experimentation, I discovered that the short ones fit best on the right and the long ones fit best on the left. Has anyone else had this experience, and if it's standard, why does Univair offer only one part number?

[jtepool]

I thought they were all the same.

[BobYoung]

One would think they are all the same. If noone else has had this experience, I suspect someone over the last 60 years has made a modification for some reason.

[lawheelock]

Bob,
I have never had occasion to measure the cowl latches but originally they were all the same. I have observed that adjustments have been made by placing spacer washers on the top cowl under the latch to raise it or shorten it.
It is also possible that someone has used latches from another aircraft. Piper Cherokees, at least some of them, have what appears to be the same cowl latch parts.
Another possiblity that I have run into: Not all cowl parts are the same even within the same model series. Someone also may have fabricated one side of the top cowl from sheet aluminum and ended up with mountings slightly different which made different length fasteners necessary.
A lot has happened to many of these planes over now 65 years for many of them.
Larry