Twisted: Week 144 - Fuel System cont. 2

Hours to date: 1272.5

A bank holiday weekend for us in the UK so I got a bit done.

The parts arrived for the Fine Filter - so I went ahead and trial fitted that.

I'm waiting on some more composite screws from R&G in Germany before I can mount that to the cell.

I've added a big block of micro to the leading edge section of the wing (between the tank and wing edge). When I go to put the front pin bearing in I will drill out an appropriate sized hole in the micro then add flock to the bearing and put the wings on. I got this technique from Pete - sounds like a much less messy and stronger solution than the factory suggestion.

The oil cooler now has it's hoses fitted. I've had to order some more 'Cool sleeve' as the first one I ordered was a bit big for the job. Space is a little restricted at the firewall so I've got to do some more thinking here about what to do regarding fittings through the firewall.

I spent about 1 hour carving out flock from the fuel overflow drain hole - a bit stupid of me to not think about the fitting when I was bonding this in. Oh well lesson learned!

I made a start with the 2 remaining composite screws I had to hold the hoses in place. As you can see after bonding in the right place 2 P-clips do the job nicely.

The fuel pumps tray is now attached and so I was able to fit the final feed line to them also (from the fuel selector).

I've built some fiberglass brackets for the inside of the fuel tank - these are to stop the flop tube fittings from moving up and down and thereby coming loose. Vans use a small metal bracket for this job and lockwire the fittings as there was a case of one coming loose. I've used Retaining Loctite on 2 of the fittings then left the one that screws onto the bulkhead pass through so I can take the fitting off should I ever need to.

The brackets will be bonded in with flock - I was going to do this job yesterday but didn't as I found out I didn't have a spanner that would fit inside the fuel tank (and also fit the locknut for the feed line bulkhead). I'll buy an appropriate spanner this week and get that job done before the weekend. So I can do both these jobs at the same time.

As you can see I also have to think about the fuel overflow vent line - it will have to be bonded to the top of the tank - so that it does not obstruct the flop tube. I'll do this when I do the other end - which needs to be bonded inside to the aft side of the fuel filler hole.