I installed the alternator wire today. This is 6AWG wire which is slightly larger than what is needed for a 40A alternator (8AWG would be fine), but there’s a possibility I may swap this out for a 60A alternator at some point, so I went ahead and ran 6AWG. Here’s the connection at the alternator end. A terminal has been crimped on, then heat shrink over that to act as a strain relief, then a boot over that to keep the hot lead protected.
I anchored the wire to one of the sump bolts where there was already a longer bolt for the prop line.
Here you can see that the line is anchored in two more places before connecting to the shunt.
After finishing up the alternator cable, I resumed work on the canopy side skirts. I pulled the canopy and frame off of the plane and drilled the #27 holes for the #6 screws, then deburred, dimpled, and countersunk all the necessary holes.
The plans have you fabricate a boring, angular canopy lift handle and then rivet it to the outside of the canopy frame. I thought it looked cheesy, so I’m deviating a bit here. First up is to round the handle nicely instead of just chopping the corners off.
I then cut a slot in the canopy skirt and frame. This will allow me to mount the handle on the inside and only have the horizontal piece be seen from the outside. I made the initial slot with the cutoff wheel in the die grinder and then used needle files to get it perfect.
I then clamped the handle to the inside of the canopy frame only.
And drilled the frame to the handle.
After deburring, countersinking, and priming the mating surfaces, I riveted the handle to the frame only.
Finally, I installed the skirt and riveted it to the frame. This looks so much nicer than the handle specified in the plans and only took about an hour to do. While I was working on the side skirts, I rewatched (mostly just listened to) Evil Dead III: Army of Darkness for about the 20th time. That is such a fucking awesome movie; Bruce Campbell rocks.
