Today I finished installing the aft wing root heat shields by getting right side K1000-6 platenuts riveted into place on the mounting tabs.  Again, I’ll final trim the glassed-in mounting tabs once I pull the engine off to gain better access to the tabs, and to ensure I don’t do any damage to anything on the engine.

Here we have the right wing root aft heat shield officially installed!

And here is a video I cobbled together showing a good bit of the effort that went into constructing and mounting these wing root aft heat shields.

I had to grab something off my shop work desk and was a little taken aback seeing this massive spider on the edge of the desk.  I guess he’s the new shop boss?!  It didn’t help that a few hours earlier as I was entering the shop a snake plopped down in the doorway as I swung the door open.  Critters abound everywhere here!

With the wing root aft heat shields officially installed I turned towards a task I started a few days ago: the final electrical cable runs in the engine compartment.  It took a bit over multiple days to dial in my exact plan, but I finally figured ‘er out.

Here I’m drilling out the center rivet on the engine’s aft baffle skirt to replace it with a button head screw (pic 1).  I then drilled out the rivet hole to 3/16″ (pic 2).

On the front, business side in this case, of the aft baffle skirt I installed the field wire (F-lead) and the thick #8 cable B-lead to the alternator.  I then secured those cables, as they began their trek forward, onto the front side of the aft baffle skirt via an Adel clamp.

Here we have the Adel-clamp-securing button head screw —which replaced the center rivet— now in the center position on the aft baffle skirt.

After a good bit more assessing/pondering/scheming/planning I also drilled a hole into the right engine side 7075 aluminum throttle cable bracket to add 2 Adel clamps to secure the alternator’s B-lead cable and F-lead wire in one Adel clamp, and the starter’s big yellow cable in the other.  I’m using 2 separate Adel clamps to allow me to remove the big yellow starter cable during engine removal while allowing the alternator cables to remain securely attached to the engine.

Moreover, if you look closely in the lower right corner you’ll see that I cut the F-lead wire, terminated a knife splice connector on the end, and then added more length of 18 AWG wire with the associated knife splice connector traversing the firewall into the hell hole.  This added 18 AWG length will get permanently spliced to the wire heading to the B&C voltage regulator in the nose once the firewall covering (Titanium sheet + Fiberfrax) is in place.  Having the knife splice connectors will allow me to disconnect the alternator’s F-lead during engine removal, and easily connect back together whilst remounting the engine.

Also in the lower right corner of the pic is a red Blue Sea threaded terminal, which is what the Alternator’s B-lead connects to for passing through the firewall, and will disconnect from during engine removal.

Pressing forward!