Really trying to knock out all the wiring and cabling (especially for the aft section) so I can button up the skins and start working on the windscreen, etc. I'm hoping to be able to get done or close to done this year.
I was out looking at Nick's Velocity the other day and noticed he'd used a modular terminal block (that AMP doesn't make anymore unfortunately) to tie together all his CHT/EGT wiring on his big bore Continental. I had been looking at the Faston connectors and how to try to route them and had not come up with a way to do it that didn't involve lots of wiring just doubled up on itself in big masses to take up the slack and secure it reasonably. I decided to adapt his idea. When I told him what I was doing he said he'd stolen it from Ed Smith. :)
I ended up making a small vertical plate to attach between the engine mounts, then use nut plates to attach the terminal blog. A serendipitous side effect was I also needed some sort of mid-run method of securing the plug wiring, and hanging some angle and a nutplate off the right side accomplished that nicely.
Here's the plate as I'm laying it out and drilling it.
And here it is installed but none of the wires terminated. I added a piece of angle later so I could attach an adel clamp to hold the lower plug wires for #2 and #4 cyls.
Running the CHT wires back.
Wires from the EMS220 monitor box come in on the right. Wires on the left are CHT and EGT for both left side cylinders.
Decided it was finally time to rivet the ribs and forward supports. I have been putting it off thinking I would have to take it apart again, but finally realized it was just holding me up so I just did it.
I had to use pulled rivets for some of the outside attachments. There just wasn't room to drive them.
Moved on with running the switch wiring. The VPX system is a bit unique in that the switches carry no actual load at all, they just open and close a ground path. When the VPX detects a ground it powers the circuit the switch is associated with. I ended up using good quality switches anyway, but you don't have to if you don't want to.
I found an ADS/B unit on VAF for a good price and was lucky enough to be able to get it. Saved about $150 over new. After flying with Steve Solomon and seeing the ADS/B traffic and weather real time I'm glad I did. Really is a no brainer with all the traffic we have around here.
I decided to mount it aft on the right wall using a mount similar to what Van's sells for the strobes that use a power supply.
Fitting the wall mount. There's way more clearance than I need to clear the rudder cable.
Mount fabricated and installed and everything connected up to the Dynon hub and the antenna.
Antenna is mounted to the belly. I'll make up a doubler plate later.
In the middle of all this I got a call from Aerosport Power, where I got my engine. Turns out someone had run into an issue where the fuel pump pushrod was not properly installed (the "hat" end was upside down) and had experienced a fuel pump failure. They had an SB to do to check it. The engine was actually built by Superior, and my serial number matched on of about 20 they had issues the SB for. I pulled the PMAG, and thankfully my pushrod is installed correctly. You can see it on the right side of the opening - the "hat" is up against the cam that drives the fuel pump.
Glad to see it's ok. It would be a lot of work to fix it. Basically you'd have to remove the accessory housing to flip it around.
I installed the COMM antenna for the SL40 under the left side baggage floor, which is one of the reasons I made it removable. I wish I'd made the other removable as well, but it's ok as is. I had to use a 90 degree adapter to attach the coax. The silver plate is a doubler.
I'm using the Delta Pop (http://www.deltapopaviation.com ) antennas. I can easily pick up center and Norfolk Approach traffic even in the garage. I attached my scanner to it and was picking up traffic as far away as Emporia, so they work really well.
I ended up using the AMP crimp connectors. I got the crimp tool from Stein. After some not so great attempts to crimp the pin with my DSub crimper (I know - that's not what it's for) I finally figured out how to do it properly with the coax crimper and haven't had any more problems.
Here's the business end of a male BNC connector.
Crimp tool from Steinair. The antenna is the Delta Pop transponder antenna that is also recommended by Dynon for their ADS/B unit. It will go in the belly skin under the ADS/B in the area of the elevator bellcrank.
