Wiring Harness

Today I worked on tidying up the wiring runs from the aft of the fuselage to the cockpit. I started by zip tying the antenna cables, and the baggage light, and inserting the C1036 and C1037 wires. I went back later and added some wrap-around cable protection in the areas where the wiring could run on rivet ship heads.

With the aft fuselage wrapped up, I worked on the wiring in the tunnel within the baggage compartment. Zip ties and spiral wrap were used liberally. Main concerns were ensuing nothing can contact the control rod, and protecting the wire bundles from chaffing on the lightening hole edges.

Tonight I finished routing the wiring harness. I was able to connect the headset jacks, the control stick, and the flap motor. Still to-do is the flap position sensor, the baggage light, and then working out how to tension the wires to stop them moving around.

Most of the work was a repeat of the right hand side. The time was spent fishing wires through the various ribs, then installing bushings. Because the connectors are already installed on the harness, the routing needs some patience. It also means the the bushings all need to be sliced in one place so that they can be spread apart and installed over the wires, then inserted into their locations in the ribs.

The flap position sensor is on backorder from Vans, but installation looks simple enough. The baggage light needs some thought and research, as this is not in the plans. I need to decide where to route the wires, where to place the light(s), which light I need, and where to locate the switch.

Tonight I started on the left-hand side wiring harness, and was able to run the wiring through to the stick. Hopefully I can get close to finishing tomorrow, although it might take another day or so. In addition to the headset jacks, the flap motor and baggage compartment light wiring needs to be installed before it’s done.

Tonight I finished installing the right hand side harness. I drilled holes for the headset jacks, installed them, and then installed the 12v power socket and aux audio plug.

The headset jacks need to be isolated from the airframe, so I measured and enlarged one of the two holes to fit the spacer washer. Then I located and enlarged a new hole for the LEMO jack, and installed all of the jacks on the right hand side. I covered the ports with electrical tape to prevent debris from building up.

With that done, I moved to the 12v power port and headset jack. The 12v socket installed easily, and I had that installed quickly. The aux audio port was wired for a molex plug, but the small pins were very annoying to work with. I decided to use d-sub pins and sockets to connect the port, and that worked out much better. If the port ever needed to be replaced, the heatshrink can be carefully sliced open, and the pins separated.

Tonight I started installing the WH-00125 fuselage wiring harness. Avionics Systems are building my panel, and shipped me the wiring harnesses. There are standard harnesses with a couple of modifications, one for the FlyELD lights, and the other for a baggage compartment light.

The install is straightforward. Because all of the connectors are already wired up, I can route the cables, then cut slots in the bushings so I can slip them over the wire bundle, and insert into the ribs and bulkheads.

I didn’t get a picture, but I was able to complete most of the right hand side wiring hardness install. I still need to locate and drill a hole for the LEMO headset port, and wire up the aux-audio and 12-volt power port.

I was doing some reading ahead and studying some other build logs today. I was trying to figure out if I should do anything extra before I permanently install the baggage floors.

I replaced a pop rivet that had been set poorly while joining the fuselage. There are only a couple of them, and one had gone in on an angle, so I removed and replaced.

Next I noticed that some builders installed additional adel clamps next to the fuel pump to hold the wiring bundles securely. The problem is, there are no nutplates installed, so people struggled with nuts and bolts. I saved that pain by installing some nutplates on the fuel pump mount. Interestingly, the holes for a nutplate are already there, and the Quickbuild kit even has dimpled rivet holes. So I installed some nutplates for future use. Access is super tight, but I was able to get my hand squeezer in there to set the rivets. I used K1000-08d nutplates