I was away Monday and Tuesday, and I've also spent some time working on taxes. Today we did a trip out to Lanark County to visit Wheeler's Pancake House and Sugar Camp, as the maple sap is running, and they have a fresh batch of maple syrup. What a feed!. So not a great week from an RV-8 progress perspective.

I did finish fabricating the big cables that go from the alternator to a current limiter on the firewall, and then connects to the main electrical system at the starter contactor. Big cables like this are not very flexible, so you need to be careful to get the ring terminals soldered at the right angle so they will fit nicely over the threaded studs.

Next, I needed to find a good way to secure the alternator cable as ran underneath the cylinders on the left side of the engine. I decided to run it right alongside the starter cable, which I had previously secured with an Adel clamp to one of the studs that attached the oil sump.

I removed the Adel clamp that secured the starter cable, but found that it was going to be pretty much impossible to secure the two cables to this location. There isn't much room to work in that area, and after I had secured the starter cable I had installed the mixture cable, which effectively blocked the needed access to this area. I wasn't prepared to remove and reinstall the mixture cable, so I had to come up with Plan B.

In this shot from the front you can see the while starter and alternator cables, the threaded stud where the Adel clamp had been, and the mixture bellcrank.

This shot, from the left side, shows the mixture cable, the threaded stud and the two big electrical cables I needed to secure.

The big problem when attaching Adel clamps is that the clamp is very springy, and it wants to open up. But, you need to have it closed so you can put both holes over the stud, then get a washer and nut on. There are various techniques to hold the clamp closed while you secure it, but none of the ones I use would work well in this very tight space. I decided to try using a small metal standoff with two holes so I could attach the clamp to one hole, then put the other hole over the oil sump stud. I had to use a different stud on the oil sump, but the basic idea worked very well. It allowed me to secure the Adel clamp while it was at a suitable angle to allow me to hold it closed with a pair of hemostats.

Here are the two cables secured in their Adel clamp. I have to secure them at the engine mount, but that shouldn't be quite as big a battle.