Redoing Propeller Safety Wire, Wiring Clean Up, Air Filter Fitting, Oil Purge

TLDR

• Re-installed the safetywire on the propeller locking plate
• Reorganized and secured wiring in the engine bay
• Oil Purge

Details

Safety Wire

My A&P friend Brian came by yesterday to check out my work. He pointed out my safety wire on the propeller locking plate was not done right and he taught me how it’s supposed to be done.

I then cut all the other safety wires I did previously, and reinstalled them properly. The end result looks like an “S” letter tying two screws together.

Wiring Clean Up

With the oil lines routed and installed to their final location, I did another round of wire clean up. Most of the wires looked ok and did not need any modifications. I threw in a few more zip ties and rubber stand-offs to bundle wires to the newly installed oil lines to ensure none of them touch each other, and also do not touch any of the engine parts.

Also, as I was doing this, I replaced all the zipties from the household nylon version to Telzel version like Jason suggested in his last EAA tech counselor visit.

I’m starting to realize organizing wires can take as long as I have on the clock. I’ve already organized my wires a few rounds already, but this round took easily 4 hours. /shrug

Air Filter Fitting

As I mentioned a few blogs ago, when I first fit my air filter the air inlet isn’t quite aligned with the cowl’s duct. I needed about 20 degrees rotation on the air filter. So I did that and tried again. This time the 2 ducts aligns better but they touch each other before the cowling is fully inserted under the engine bay. Someone on the Sling builder’s forum once said the bottom cowling is the work of Satan, they are not lying!!

So anyways, I took the cowling off again, and cut a chunk of the duct away from the bottom cowling so they don’t interfere.

Oil Purge

This is the most exciting project this week. I am traveling for a few weeks starting this weekend, so I really wanted the engine to have lubrication before I go. I am super glad I got to do the oil purge this week.

So the purge steps are listed in a Rotax service instruction, and also available as an official Rotax instruction video. I watched both for about 10 times, then started the work.

• https://rotax.my.salesforce-sites.com/DocumentsSearch/sfc/servlet.shepherd/version/download/0685c00000AUWQyAAP?asPdf=false
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1GPjPZCXd4

Removing Spark Plug Connectors

At this point of the build, I’ve learned to expect the unexpected. Just as I started I was stuck at step 1 - removing the spark plug connectors.

The connector is pushed onto the spark plug and protected by a very thick rubber boot. I tried a few times but couldn’t remove the connector.

I bought a spark plug connector plier, which is basicall a needle nose plier with a circle opening to hold the connector. With the plier as leverage I was able to pull all 8 plug connectors very easily.

Then I bascially just followed the instruction:

• removed the oil return lines from the oil canister and put them in a bottle.
• Removed 1 spark plug per cylinder
• Added oil to the max, then some
• Cranked the propeller about 100 rotations until the oil PSI increased on the dashboard

One small tip: usually oil purge requires 2 people: one cranking the propeller and the other sitting in the cockpit watching oil pressure. I did this by myself. I just put my GoPro camera in front of the panel and started recording, and connected my phone to the camera for remote preview. It has about 1 second delay, but didn’t really matter.

So I stopped cranking when the oil pressure came up to about 5. Then I poured the overflow oil from the return line back to the oil canister, reconnected everything, and burped the engine. Finally, I checked the oil level one more time, it’s right at the max line.

For spark plugs, before I put them back I applied a little bit of heat paste on the threads. Took special care to not get any heat silicone on the tip of the spark plug.

inspiration Pic

Just for fun, I put on both the bottom and upper cowl, and took an inspirational picture. It’s looking like an airplane :-)