Over the weekend I spent time working on the wiring around the engine. My goal was to get all of the electrical connections made this weekend, and this coming week to finish securing the wiring.
In other news, my interior arrived from Classic Aero. I didn’t unbox everything, just the seats, as I have more work to do in the cabin before it’s worth installing the interior. the seats look great, and it’ll be awesome to get it all fitted.
The wiring required finalizing routing of various wires, trimming to length, installing ring terminals, and then securing them.
Before starting, I powered up the G3X and confirmed the ignitions were deactivated. I can’t deactivate the starter switch, so I covered the push-to-start switch with a small red plastic cup and taped it into position. This is to prevent a scenario where someone accidentally bumps the start switch while the battery is turned on. This is the danger of the push-to-start switch; if the battery switch is on (as it might be for maintenance or just configuring stuff on the ground), depressing the start switch will spin the prop and cause serious injury to anyone within the prop arc. This is different from many aircraft which use a keyed ignition, requiring a fairly deliberate turning of the key through several positions before the starter will engage. Keyed systems can degrade over time and are more liable to cause an accident where the magnetos are not fully grounded. If this occurs, someone who rotates the prop by hand could cause the engine to fire, resulting in a nasty accident and potentially an unmanned aircraft with an engine running. Anyway, caution is needed.
The starter motor wiring required a little re-routing to ensure the wires ran clear of the engine block and the snorkel. I wired up the ignition switch, along with the start lamp wire which provides an input to the G3X to identify when the starter is engaged. Useful to identify a stuck-starter situation.
I connected the alternator field wire and removed the unnecessary alternator lamp wire. The Vertical Power unit will monitor the alternator and alert in the event of a failure. I added some silicone to the back side of the alternator plug to stabilize the wires.
The baggage light is connected to the battery (hot bus), bypassing the Vertical Power system, and requires an inline 3A fuse. I picked up a fuse holder from AutoZone so I can use an automotive blade-style fuse. I mounted the fuse holder between two adel clamps near the oil dipstick to make changing the fuse possible via the oil door, without having to remove the cowling, or diving under the panel somewhere.
