Today was all about getting the final left fuel line tubing segment made up and installed.

And I’ll note that with the weather temp dropping into the mid-80’s (about 5-6° cooler than the usual lately), it provided a noticeable slight reprieve from this crazy heat of late.

Note the fuel line segment coming from the black inline fuel valve to the fuel selector valve.  It looks a little odd at this camera angle as it looks like a constant shallow curve up into the fuel selector valve.  That is an optical illusion, as there is actually 2 curves at play just below the fuel selector valve: a 90° from vertical-to-horizontal and about a 23° curve forward to place the fuel line somewhat in the center between the aft (right tank) and forward (out to fuel pump) fuel line tubes on the right side of the fuel selector valve [note peel ply pulled and glass edges cleaned up from yesterday’s support pedestal layups].

Here’s a bit higher angle of the above pic: note the fuel selector valve “free floating” as it is only secured in this position by the 3 fuel line fittings threaded to hand tightness at this point.

I then installed the fuel selector valve first to the compound angled securing bracket, which involved also installing the valve’s fascia ring plate.

Once the fuel selector valve was secured to the bracket with 3 stainless steel button head screws, it resulted in the bracket being askew —angled off to the right by about 0.3″.  I then rotated the fuel selector valve and bracket CCW and temporarily secured it in place with a hex wrench inserted into a K1000-8 before installing all the mounting CS screws.

I also had to add some space between right fuel line tubing (farthest aft) and the left fuel line inline valve to ensure the open/closed handle could rotate freely.  To further ensure clearance I also rotated the inline valve body to ensure that its top face (flat section) was actually vertical before securing it to the support pedestal with heat shrink covered zip ties.

Below you can see the 6x #8 CS screws that secure the fuel selector valve mounting bracket to the lower right angle bracket just below the nose gear viewing window.

I then installed the fuel selector valve’s rotating handle and the small painted screw cover plate over the bracket securing screws I highlighted above.  Also note that I turned the left fuel line inline valve handle to closed (up) to verify clearance with the nearby right fuel line tubing.

Here is a closer-up shot of the left fuel line inline valve handle in the closed (up) position.  This pic also gives us a better view of the fuel valve support pedestal aft layup after cleanup. Again, when this inline valve is in the open (down) position it will be safety wired to the Adel clamp screw seen at the bottom of the pic above.

And while I’m very pleased with the good progress I made on the fuel system today, I will note that I still have to do the final torques on all the fuel line tubing securing nuts and secure/pad the fuel lines where the contact any composite surfaces.