Monday, May 30, 2011 Memorial Day at the Airport

A day off work and an opportunity to go to the airport. We experienced a heavy lightning storm last night and this morning we had heavy rain squalls. So glad to be indoors. The goal today was to work on the engine and engine components.

First, I worked on getting the muffler re-attached. That didn’t take too long, except that the attachment to the engine could not be completed since this is accomplished by two springs which keep the muffler in line with the engine manifold. These springs were too worn to re-use, so I brought one of them home so I could find replacements.

Last visit I had attached the seat belt and shoulder harness but was slightly confused how they hooked together. Today it was very apparent and I actually sat in the seat with the shoulder harness and seat belt attached, but saw that the shoulder harness attach points were too far apart to be usable, so will have to move them further inboard, a project for another time.

I attached the carburetor and traced the path of the fuel line to see how the tubing should be connected. It seemed pretty clear how to run the fuel line which had been chopped up by the overzealous jaws-of-life operator at the accident scene. In addition to the main line, there are three mysterious small tubes coming out of the carburetor that I can’t figure out, so will have to check them out.

The throttle cable will be a little more of a challenge to get reinstalled. The cable that runs to the hand control is intact, but the split cable that runs to the foot control was cut and will take some research. The foot control is part of the nosewheel assembly that was broken in the accident and re-welded, so it will be somewhat challenging to figure out how to get the throttle cable hooked up. Worse case I could get the engine running with the hand control only for now.

Finally, I got frustrated with the tangled web of electrical wires that had been apparently jury-rigged over time as components were added and taken off, so I disconnected most of the wires that I could see had nothing to do with the actual engine electrical system. I will add some of them back later, but for now I just want the wiring to support the engine function only. I do want to add at some point a kill switch, ignition and starter switch, and some engine instrumentation, such as tachometer, dual CHT, EGT, and hour meter. But for now, the engine wires are dangling down ready to be attached. The project for the next visit is clear; connecting the wiring and fuel line, charging the battery, and getting closer to starting the engine.

For today, I’m pleased with what was accomplished, mostly research into what should be done next.