Week 179 - Trim again! Firewall and Elevator Actuating

Hours to date: 1609.75

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all had a good break.

Well I found out why the trim was out of range - I had bonded it in the wrong place!

What a clutz! 

The instructions in the manual are actually very clear on what needs to be done but for some reason I didn't follow them.

I was out by about 40mm. So I had to remove the old trim mounting bracket and make a new one - which I did with 5 layers of Carbon this time. I've probably added another 5 hours to the build with this screw up.

This muck-up happened when I was in my other garage and I was keen to move forward so installed the trim bracket but you must not do this before having first set up the elevator actuating pushrods.

On the electrics all I've done since the last post is install the battery cables and Ammeter Shunt. I'm not doing the firewall end of the cable terminals till I figure out where the forest of grounds will go.

I've almost finished the firewall fire proofing, just ran out of cool-it tape so have got some more of that on order. It must be made of gold or something as the price is more than a pound a foot!

I've also installed the fresh air vent but have since found out that there are little gaps on the sides so I'll have to fill those in somehow. Also when I was bonding it in I had it in the perfect place then it must have just moved slightly under gravity and now the operation is a little notchy - I should have taped the vent in place at the time of bonding.

The final thing I've done is set up the elevator actuating pushrods and Loctite the rod ends in place. Again follow the manual for this. As it turns out the neutral setting for me was having all 3 rod ends with their minimum of 10 threads inserted. To set the trim in the right place the elevator must be moved up by 5 degrees and centered in it's range so these are two separate jobs which should not be done as one.

Next up will be some more electrics I think.

Battery cables all done at this end. Essential bus wire still to come to the Contactor.

Firewall fireproofing getting there - just a bit more cool it tape to go.

I've made this hole underneath the fuse box section to pass wires through.

Setting the elevator neutral point with the actuating push rods

Spot on with all threads at their minimum 10 turns in.

New trim bracket made up and bonded in place. Hopefully I got it right this time!

Rod ends being Loctited in place.

Fresh Air vent bonded in.