February 5, 2006

On a roll today, I made all the brake lines that were left to do. I started with the ones for the brake pedals to the parking brake valve. These were pretty easy, as both ends terminate in a straight swivel fitting. I might even order some more stuff and do the lines between the passenger side and the pilot side. They just look nicer than the nylon tubing.

Here’s how you’ll see it from the pilot seat. There’s a lot of stuff hanging around under there!

I moved along to the brake line for the right gear. This was a little trickier as both ends have a 90 degree fitting. These fittings need to be oriented correctly so that the hose doesn’t have to twist, something it doesn’t do too well. I marked the hose where the fitting needed to be oriented to, and marked the nut on the fitting in it’s fully tightend position. Then, when I tightened the whole thing up, I made sure to keep the marks aligned. Thing is, when you tighten the fitting down on the hose during assembly, the hose will turn in the nut, and if you don’t keep an eye on where it stops, you’ll be all messed up. Don’t ask me how I know this!

Here’s the wheel end. Same as the left side really. Using the flexible hoses means I don’t have to have a curly loop of aluminium tubing down here. Temporary tie wraps again too.

The area where it goes into the cowling.

And the firewall end. A bit out of focus, but never mind.

I finally got around to ordering the stop nuts from spruce, and torquing the gear leg bolts. These have been sitting loose for some time now, and Mike was worried I’d forget to do it! Well, here it is. Torqued.