Brake Lines Done

The first thing I worked on is "fixing" the ADAHRS brackets. Due to a post on VAF I looked ahead and found out how the ADAHRS is actually mounted to the brackets. Yuck! Van's wants you to jiggle the ADAHRS unit while putting little screws in from the bottom and counter them with little metal lock nuts. I DON'T THINK SO! I will install the ADAHRS and the rest of the avionics with the fuselage on its belly or even on its gear. So I really don't want to lie down in the tail cone just to install this thing.
I drilled out the brackets and installed nut plates K1000-06 in the four places. That way I can at least egt along by using two hands. One to hold the unit and one to screw in the screw.
Update: Not such a good idea! I will remove these nutplates again when I get home tonight. They are made from steel and this could confuse the magnetometer that's built into the the ADAHRS.

After I was done with the reinstallation of the ADAHRS brackets, I caught up with some loose ends. In this case the brake lines. I think it's about time to install the rudder pedals now. Please correct me if I'm delusional about this point! In order to have everything in place for the installation I had to install the brake fluid reservoir.

The holes in the flange did not line up with the holes in the firewall, so I had to use the round file to widen one hole a bit. I put some Baker-Seal on the NPT end of the Y-fitting for the brake lines and screwed it into the reservoir from inside the cockpit.

It took a little force to get the other end to the 3 o'clock position. I didn't think it would take another full turn, so I stopped and connected the second line.

The final step was to route the two brake lines through the cushioned clamp and to screw it onto a post. Because of the inherent springiness of the clamp, this required a second clamp to hold the cushioned one down enough so the threads of the AN3 bolt could make contact with the nutplate.

This worked out quite well. As soon as the bolt had good contact with the nutplate the compressing clamp fell off and I kept on screwing the bolt in with now problems.

It's funny but I couldn't find instructions in the text to actually manufacture these two brake lines. The instructions are in a figure on the last page in Section 27 that shows how to connect these lines to the brake pedals.
And this although the manufacturing part actually needed quite some time. Not because it was complicated or a lot to do. No, it took me overall probably an hour to just find the parts. In my limited space I had to get very creative when I put parts from previous kits away for the next kit coming in. And I just couldn't recall my previous genius so easily to find the parts when I needed them tonight. Now, I feel that I have a better grip on where other parts might be that I soon could use. But I guess, I might forget this again if I don't use them soon.
If nobody objects, I will put the rudder pedals in tomorrow evening.