Estes Little Joe II (Small) Build, Part 6, Engine Mount

Here's the engine mount illustration from the instruction sheet. You are told to wiggle a knife blade in the upper ring slot to slip the shock cord through. The end of the shock cord is knotted and pulled up against the upper centering ring.

I didn't take a picture of the finished engine mount, and I take pictures of everything!
Here's and engine mount from a previous build showing a replaceable Kevlar tie. A wrap of electrical tape has yet to be added going around and over the Q-tip tube and engine hook.
If you are new to the blog, here's more information on the replaceable Kevlar mount: CLICK HERE

The kit instructions have you glue the centering rings 1/16" from the ends of the engine tube. I ended up gluing the rings 1/8" from the tube ends to give the Kevlar loop better placement and hold.

The engine mount is glued in with the rear ring 3/4" from the bottom of the main air frame tube. This moves the center of gravity forward. There is no forward clay weight like in the old Centuri Mini Little Joe.

The fit of the centering rings was good. This is a dry fit. Fillets were added after the mount was slipped in place.

The rear fillet was applied and smoothed with no problem.
The front centering ring was farther down than my finger could reach.

The upper centering ring fillet was applied a drop at a time using a Q-tip taped to a dowel. Drop, apply and smooth - repeat until there is a glue line all the way around the ring.

After the engine mount is glued in I usually give the inside ends of the main air frame tube a wipe of medium CA glue.

TIP: Before the CA was applied, I noticed the inside spiral was starting to lift. Past experience has taught me that CA glue won't hold down this end lift.
The lifted end is glued down using yellow carpenter's glue. After that dried, the CA glue wipe followed.