Drilling holes in the shims that will be used to
close the small gap between the landing light ribs and top skin.
Successful trial fit of landing light ribs with .040”
shims in place above the ribs.
After the trial fit, the shims were dimpled as
well as the W-1203R wing skin using the dimple dies that have a hole in them
for a nail that gets pulled with a hand rivet puller. The eight screw holes
that will secure the landing light lens were also dimpled for #6 screws.
Getting ready to set a dimple into the W-1203R
wing skin for the flush rivets being used on the RV-12 project. The hand rivet
puller will pull up on the nail going through the dimple dies, squeezing them
together, thus creating a dimple.
After finishing all the preparations for
mounting the landing light ribs, attention was turned towards wiring of the
landing light’s Molex electrical connector. As with the landing light placed
into the left wing, shielded cable is being used. Not sure if the wig wag mode
generates noise in the electrical system as does the wing tip strobe lighting,
but since I have the shielded wire, it is being used.
Questions have been asked about the process of preparing
the shielded wire, so photos were taken of each step utilized. First, three to
four inches of the Tefzel coating is lightly scored with a razor knife and I
mean lightly … don’t go into the shielding. The Tefzel at the very end of the
cable is then cut all the way so it can be grabbed and pealed back. It may be
necessary to deepen the score in spots to get the outer coating to peal evenly. Next the shield is pushed up and opened so the
wires inside can be fished out one at a time. Heat shrink is placed over the shield then
its pulled back and the transition point is dressed with another piece of heat shrink.
Pictures are worth a thousand words….
Tefzel shielded cable about to be prepared for the
landing light’s Molex electrical connector.
Using a razor blade knife to lightly (and I mean
lightly) score about three to four inches of the Tefzel coating.
Outer Tefzel coating removed without cutting the
thin shield wires.
Shielding is then pushed up the wire so it
bunches up.
The thin shielding strands are carefully pushed
aside, trying not to break
any of the strands, to create a “hole” revealing
the inner wires.
A small jewelers screwdriver or similar object is
used to begin drawing the wire out of the “hole”.
After a loop is obtained, the wire can be completely
pulled out through
the "hole". This process is repeated for the remaining wires.
Once the wires have been removed from inside the
shielding, the shielding is pulled tight making it a long braided wire.
Using a heat gun to cover the shield wires
with black heat shrink tubing.
The shield wire is then pulled back parallel
with the cable and a piece of heat shrink is used to dress the transition point.
Heat shrink with wire designations printed on it
is then placed onto the wires.
A more frugal way of designating the wiring is to use
a printer to print designations , then cut the paper and place it under clear shrink tubing.
Crimping .062” Molex connector pins onto the
ends of the wires.
Presto … finished Molex connector for right
wing’s landing light in place and ready to be connected to the landing light.
Prior to mounting the landing light tomorrow, thought
it would be prudent to test the light using a couple of 9v batteries wired in
parallel.
Yep … the lights work … now try the horn!
