Electrical Panel - 4 hour (207 Total)

Over the course of several days, I laid out my electrical panel.

I started out by cutting out a piece of cardboard that fit the dimensions between the middle and rear cabanes. After laying out all of my electrical components on the cardboard and determining the best layout, I bolted the components to the cardboard.

I originally thought that I would use two panels, one on the left and one on the right, but it turned out I could use one large panel if I used both sides.

I then installed my cardboard electrical panel into the plane. Once in the plane, I did some adjusting of the components to facilitate wiring.

I intend to completely wire the engine and panel to insure proper fit before replace the cardboard with a piece of sheet metal.

CHT and Oil Temp Probes - 1 hour (203 Total)

Today I installed my CHT and oil temp probes. These probes came with my Stratomaster instrument package from MGL Avionics.

To allow the CHT probe to be fully installed into the hole provided in the cylinder head, I needed to shorten the probe's spring. Surprisingly, the spring was easily cut with a pair of wire cutters.

Prior to installing the probe, I added a generous glob of thermal grease to the tip of the probe.

I used a pair of vise-grips and a socket to tighten the probe. I tightened to a snug fit.

The oil temp probe threaded directly into the opening provided in bottom of the oil tank. I used Teflon tape to seal the threads.

Oil Tank - 1 hour (202 Total)

After many hours of holding the oil tank in different positions around the plane trying to find the optimum location, I finally decided to mount it on the middle cabane on the left side.

This location will give me easy access to the take from the door allowing easy filling. It will also allow easy draining since there is plenty of clearance between the drain plug and any obstacles. Since it is mounted between the left cabanes and left wall, it is making use of space that would normally be wasted. The tank needed to be oriented just right so it doesn't come in contact with the planes skin or the aileron cable.

A few negatives of this location are: The sight tube will be difficult to see but I may be able to see it from outside the plane through the left window. This location is also close to my head. If there is considerable noise from the sloshing of the oil, I may have trouble with keeping my bladder comfortable!

I mounted the oil tank using 1" cushioned wire clamps. Placing two clamps on the middle cabane but in opposite facing directions allowed me to compensate for the left-right angle the cabane sits at. I used a piece of aluminum angle mounted from the tank bracket to the rear cabane to keep the tank from rotating around the middle cabane.

I needed to attach the tank's mounting bracket in a funny fashion to get the fittings to face the rear of the plane.

Mounting Engine - 2 hour (201 Total)

With the help of a few friends, I removed the wings from the plane. This was necessary to install the new engine brackets.

I then installed the new engine bracket and mounted the engine. I tightened the four bolts that hold the engine to the plate to the proper torque specified in the HKS manual. Since the tips of the bolts protrude through the engine block, I intend to mark the bolt with nail polish so I can quickly check the bolts during my pre-flight check.

I also tightened down all eight Barry mounts until they were snug. I used soft Barry mounts.

The new mount has resolved most of the clearance issues that the original had. The spacing between the sharp corner of the mount brackets and the bottom side of the engine is still close at 3/32". If the spacing proves to be too little, a simple solution would be to round over or chamfer the sharp edge of the bracket to increase the clearance.

The oil fitting clearance was also resolved but the type of fittings that can be used is limited due to the spacing. The 90 degree fitting I'm planning to use just barely clears the bolt head.

New Engine Mount - 0 hour (199 Total)

I received my new engine mount from Green Sky Adventures. Jerry did some clean up of the mount prior to sending it to me so it is much prettier than the first. Jerry also did a test fit of the mount on an engine.

Overall the mount looks good but the two smaller holes in the bracket needed to be drilled out to accommodate the 1/4" bolts. This was an error that I didn't catch in the design files.

Lift Strut Fairings - 1 hour (199 Total)

Today I started working on the Lift Strut Fairings. I didn't get very far before I decided that I didn't want to use them.

The Rans literature shows them as being made out of Lexan; these are made of some type of opaque plastic that wont allow me to see the bolts inside during pre-flight inspections.

After I cleaned up the first fairing, I put it on the wing to test it's fit. The most noticeable problem was the forward lip did not have enough curve to it to fit against the Leading Edge Spar. I could have trimmed this off to allow a better fit but the directions called to have a foam rubber seal added to prevent air flow between the fairing and the wing. Trimming the fairing would remove the lip that the seal is suppose to stick to.

I also didn't like their suggested attachment method of using screws without any type of vibration proof locking method.

Jury Struts and Fairings - 12 hours (198 Total)

Over the course of three days, I assembled my Jury Struts and Jury Strut Fairings. This was a tedious and time consuming process. The main reason for this was the fairings needed to added prior to riveting the Jury Struts completely together.

I started out by drilling the holes in the Lift Struts for the eyebolts. Once the eyebolts were installed I cut the bottom portion of the Jury Strut to match the distance between the eyebolts on the Forward Lift Strut and Rear Lift Strut. I cut the aluminum tubing slightly long so it would be slightly compressed when installed. The lengths varied by ~1/16" between the left wing's Jury Strut and the Right wing's.

I then inserted the drilled out aluminum bushings into the rod ends. To give them a snug fit, I only inserted them part way before using the punch to dimple the tubing. I them pressed the bushings all the way in.

I then drilled and riveted the stainless steel hardware to the bottom Jury Strut pieces. I placed the parts on a hard flat surface to insure that the pieces were lined up during this process.

Once the bottom pieces were complete I cut and assembled the other two sides of the Jury strut. I relied on measurements instead of the lengths suggested in the manual. I used a pen to mark a straight line down the length of the tubing to use as a reference to insure the pieces were drilled and assembled without any twists. At this point I used Clecos to assemble to pieces together. Rans only provided 12 clecos with the kit so I was only able to have one assembled at a time.

Once I had the Jury Struts assembled (with clecos) and verified they fit onto to wing, I started working on the fairings. I used my Dremel tool to carve away at the plastic fairing material to insure a tight fit. This was a time consuming process since I needed to assemble and disassemble the Jury Strut each time I would test fit the fairing.

Since I wanted to wait until the very end before I drilled the extra holes in the stainless steel hardware that Rans called out to reinforce some of the connections, the top hardware had the tendency to twist or rotate. This hardware connects to the wing with a clevis pin so it's alignment is crucial. To insure proper alignment, I marked both the tubing and hardware while they were installed onto the wing. That way when I was working on the fairings, I could rotate the hardware back to the correct position if it was inadvertently twisted.

Once I was happy with the Jury struts and fairings, I took them apart, cleaned up the edges and marking and sanded the plastic fairing material so it would accept the paint easier. I then riveted the pieces together and performed one last trial fit. I then drilled holes in the stainless steel hardware and tubing for the extra rivets. I also installed the aluminum rivets into the fairings to prevent them from twisting.

I did not drill out the hole in the Drilled Aluminum Bushings for the cotter pin. I have heard that this attachment method is prone to failure due the the wing vibration wearing through the cotter pin. I will look to see if I can find another attachment method that can handle the vibration better.