I attacked several different jobs this week, but every time I hit a wall as I needed some small piece of hardware. Add it to the list and move on to the next job. I made some progress on the B&C alternator wiring - I got the field power plug assembled, but discovered that my original plan for the routing of the alternator output cable won't work, and the cable I have is a few inches too short for the routing I will use.

I removed one of the heat muffs from the exhaust. I have two heater boxes, and two heat muffs. I had a hard time finding a good place for one of the heat muffs, and eventually settled on a location that put the muff over a slip joint. There is a definite risk of CO coming through the slip joint and getting into the cabin, but I rationalized that my CO monitor would provide warning, and I could then turn off the heat. But, I was never really comfortable with this half-baked plan. I finally came to my senses, and recognized that putting the heat muff over a slip joint was a really, really stupid idea. So, I removed it, and put out a plea for ideas to the RV-8 List at Yahoo. Two alternative locations were offered. Someone promised to send pictures of how he routed the SCAT tune to a location on the front right cylinder's exhaust.

I started the leak test on the left fuel tank today. It'll be a few days before I know whether it holds air or not.

This afternoon I installed the mounting bracket for the wing leveler. There are a bunch of possible places to mount the wing leveler servo, and I chose a location under the mid-cabin cover on the right side. I borrowed the idea from Ray Lynn. I fabricated the mount a long time ago (details - onetwothree).

 


Installing the mount turned out to be much more difficult than I had anticipated, as there isn't a lot of room to work in that area. I could have really used some of those folks who assemble the mechanisms in DVD players. :) But, I finally got it screwed in place.

 


I even got the Adel clamp installed underneath to secure the wire bundle in place. That was a real trick, as there wasn't room to use hemostats to hold the clamp closed as I usually do. Fortunately, a couple of days ago I read a tip about using safety wire to secure a clamp closed so you could get the screw in - that worked great. Now I'm having a glass of wine to celebrate a small victory.

 


I'll install the servo tomorrow, but I'll leave off the rod that connects it to the control column. I won't install it until I am ready to start the wing leveler servo flight testing. I don't want it in place for the initial flight testing, as there are already enough risks to deal with - I don't want to have to worry about the servo doing something strange.