Controlling the Engine

I thought the next step was to finish the safety wiring on the gascolator but then I realized that I wanted to open the bowl and check for debris after the first engine run. I would have to cut that wire to remove the bowl and I think it is less than pure joy to put it on to begin with. So I decided to wait with the safety wiring until before certification day.

Instead of safety wiring I started on installing the engine controls, choke and throttle.

Sliding them into place was fairly easy to do. Getting those cushioned clamps in place was not. The help of some temporary tie wraps made this possible though.

Tightening the nuts on the back of the controls was again pretty awkward to get to. A wrench would hardly turn before it needed repositioning because of interference. This -12 is really hard to work on because of limited space. I sure hope this will all just stay in place forever.

Once everything was tightened down it looked pretty though and was well worth the effort (I guess that goes to say for the whole plane).

The firewall forward part had another surprise for me waiting. The job was to install a double clamp to keep the 4 cables from rubbing on any part of the motor mount. This thing put up quite a fight and I needed the help of tie wraps on both clamps and lot of creativity to get tools on both ends of the screw at the same time.
I think I probably worked half an hour on getting the nut installed on this double clamp alone.

I have not tightened it yet as I want to see how the attached ends of the cables affect the way they curve around the engine mount. Then it should be easy to finalize the position and tighten it.

So I first have to give these dangling cable ends a purpose before I can do this.