I got a late start on the build today, and since it was very late in the afternoon —and thus cooler— I took the opportunity to sand on the bottom cowling for about 45 minutes.  I was mostly knocking off the old blue paint, but also hit the new added carbon fiber panels fairly aggressively to knock down any egregious high spots and smooth out the surface for upcoming micro.

I then got to work on the final install of the alternator cable/wire and starter cable Adel clamps, which secure all this to the throttle cable bracket on the right side of the engine.  I needed a slightly longer AN3 bolt, a thin washer and a 10-32 star washer for the standard jam nut I’m using to secure the alternator B-lead/F-lead pair in the upper Adel clamp.  These will stay attached here on the motor and get disconnected at the firewall when/if I need to remove the engine.

On the remaining threads of the bolt protruding below the jam nut, I then secured the big yellow starter cable in an Adel clamp using a temporary jam nut.  For final engine install I’ll swap out the jam nut for an A/C grade locknut (I have to disconnect the starter cable and run it through the firewall covering when it is installed).

In addition, you can see that I covered a good bit of the starter cable with a heat shrink anti-chaffing sleeve.  I also labeled the starter cable.  After I install the firewall I’ll do the final trimming of this cable to length and crimp a terminal connector onto the end of it to mount to the starter stud.

I had also planned on getting the fuel injection servo officially installed and also the left side rudder cable guide secured to the oil cooler mounting flange with an Adel clamp, spacer and K1000-3 platenut. I completed the former, but not the latter.

In my attempt to drill safety wire holes into the 5/16″ nuts my efforts were rewarded by nothing more than a few broken bits.  And I was using higher end bits to try to punch through the tougher A/C-grade (or automotive grade 8) nuts.  Plain and simple: no joy here.  My guess is that this device is only for medium to lower grade hardware.

My backup plan from I’m guessing well over a year ago was to use these steel sleeves around the 5/16″ nuts that provide safety wire holes.  Once again I spent nearly half an hour in the “find me if you can” game since at some past shop flooding they had gotten wet and had some surface rust (just remembering this now).  They were over by my lathe where I had taken them post-flood to drench the baggy of them in oil.  That was forever ago, and I had to hunt them down tonight to use them.

I know Lycoming prefers star washers in mounting components, and I do have 1/4″ and 3/16″ star washers on hand, but no 5/16″.  I also did a quick check online and some pics I have of these Silver Hawk fuel injection servos bolted in place, and most builders used the star washers.  I do have 5/16″ split lock washers on hand so I simply used those instead, since the critical element in this endeavor is torqueing these nuts to the proper value (204 in-lbs according to Lycoming).

Before the final servo install, I removed it, cleaned each face with Acetone and applied a very thin layer of Permatex gasket RTV to the gasket.  I let the gasket RTV tack up for about 5 minutes before installing the fuel injection servo back onto the cold air induction plenum.

I only used the safety wire sleeves on the top nuts, while using just a standard washer and split lock washer on the bottom studs.  I then torqued them to value… well, the bottom ones anyway.  There was no getting a torque wrench up on the top nuts so I just, once again, followed the lead of my RV-building brethren and ensured the top nuts were on good and tight.  That being said, I still used a cross pattern while tightening the bolts.  I then safety wired across the two top nuts.

I’ll note that I safety wired the two top nuts starting on the right and going left, because I didn’t want the tail of the safety wire to come anywhere close to the pivoting throttle lever arm.

Yes, another task taking at least twice as long as I planned for, and it was quite late by the time I finished up.  Tomorrow I’ll apply orange torque seal to these nuts, and get that left side rudder cable guide secured to the oil cooler mounting flange!

Pressing forward.