Today I started making the brass grounding blocks. My orders from Stein and All Electrics came in- great fun!
The brass terminal strips were available from Stein for $1 each, so a few minutes of soldering and a $3 piece of brass from the hobby shop saved me $50 or so from B&C.
The flux looks pretty bad in the picture above, but after some time with a toothbrush and some rubbing alcohol it cleaned up well.
I also took apart the VHF Nav antenna that I picked up in the Aeromart at Oshkosh. It was very inexpensive, and I was planning to use just the conductors. I’m still trying to figure out how to make a mount that will work well on the fin.
I installed the brake reservior on the engine side of the firewall with one of the holes in a support tab for the firewall.
My goal is to not have any bolts holding on just the firewall, since there are so many little parts that need to be mounted to the firewall too. I did need to shorten the tabs slightly because of the somewhat short reach of the -3 clip nuts that I had. I put the paper towel between the firewall and the tab so that I could use the dremel to cut the tab without scratching the firewall.
I debated briefly about whether or not I wanted to have the reservior on the engine side of the firewall. The benefits would be ease of servicing and reduced possibility of interior leaks. The only drawback that I can think of is that the possibility of problems in the event of an engine fire. I decided that in the event of an engine fire I’m not going to be too concerned about the status of the brake reservior! The brakes will still work once or twice without the reservoir in the system anyway. I drilled a hole in the firewall for the line to pass through, then realized that the location of the hole was going to be too close to the brake pedals. I’m concerned that there is a remote chance that the fitting might interfere with the brake pedals, so I’m going to move it up a little.