Over the last week I’ve been chipping away at the panel wiring in the evenings. It’s hard to measure progress sometimes because I’ve been spending a lot of time on very small tasks, and/or doing something one way only to do it again a different way.
The main accomplishment, however, has been installing the wiring channel that connects the center tunnel to the sub panel. This is a lightweight frame that allows the wiring and pitot static lines to neatly fit inside, keeping all the wiring out of sight and out of the way of the occupants. This was not as easy to install as I hoped. The problem is access to the rivets that attach the frame to the sub panel. On one side there is an existing frame, and on the other side are the many bundles of wiring. I ended up drilling out the rivets and removing the frame that was blocking my access. Then I set pop rivets in place, then reinstalled the frame I had removed.
Once I had that channel in place, I installed the cover and checked for clearance on all sides. I found the connector for the standby battery was just touching the connector for the CO detector. The standby battery is installed on a panel above the fuel pump, just forward of this wiring channel. The CO detector is installed on the backside of the cover that sits on the wiring channel.
To solve the issue I relocated the CO detector mount, moving it sideways and up. This required drilling out some rivets and making some new holes, but it was no big deal. It’s now in a position where the two connectors and their wiring runs are not contacting each other.
With all that work done, the whole area is looking much cleaner and tidier.
