Electrical Wiring

I went to Pacific Coast Avionics and bought some wiring supplies. I love the company there. I know the guys and they are so helpful, and willing to sell me bits and pieces for very reasonable prices along the way, and help me with ideas and so on. The head guy there and his son are building an RV-7 and I've helped them with a few things along the way, so it's definitely a mutually beneficial friendship. Anyway, here's what I came home with, for the tail wiring:

I got some shielded wire, a couple of small snap-bushings, some black "snake skin" wire enclosure, some white spiral wrap, and the blue & yellow diodes for the firewall-forward solenoids. I have a plan for putting this stuff in the fuselage.

The multi-strand wire bundle that will go into the rudder will see a lot of movement, as the rudder swings back and forth during flight. So I want to be extra careful to make sure this wire is well protected from any chafing, wear and tear, etc. So I'm enclosing it in the "snake skin" sheathing, with some heat-shrink on both ends of the sheathing, to make sure it stays in place. A snap-bushing was put in place for the small hole I drilled the other day in the rear bulkhead, and the wire pushed through the bushing. When I mount the rudder, this will go into the rudder bottom and back to where the tail light and strobe are mounted.

Looking down inside the rear of the fuselage, I wrapped it in spiral wrap for additional protection, since there really isn't anything in there to secure it to. You will also notice a big blob of proseal that I put on the left (aft) bulkhead where the wire comes out. This is where the most motion will be seen as the rudder moves back and forth, so I want this secured. After curing for a few days, this is rock solid. Yet, if I ever need to get it out, no problem. On the right is the other small snap bushing in that bulkhead.

As I mentioned a few days ago, the wires that go into the Horiz. Stab. for the trim tab split off from the bundle before reaching the tail. They come up through here and into the H.S. as soon as it's mounted. You can see the tail light wires coming out the back.

Inside the fuselage, the wires come forward through the next two bulkheads as seen here. Then, they just need to be secured to the little white tie-downs with some zip-ties. The aft fuselage is wired!

Here's the wire bundle at this point, lying on the floor behind the baggage bulkhead. It will remaing a bit messy for now, because I'm not finished bring wires into this area. Plus, I'm about to pull these wires through the conduit that carries the pitch servo harness forward. The white tubing is the static line.

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