This post takes part over two different hangar trips interrupted by a business trip to London.
First thing we did was take out all the brake line fittings we had so nicely tightened, apply the thread sealant and re-install. This was surprisingly time consuming, though not-surprisingly annoying.
The hand brake cable arrived and I installed it into the console.
It needs the sticker installed on the end. Allen cut the cable to the right length and cut a metal block to hold the sheath in place when the cable is pulled. We didn’t install it yet because we didn’t have the nut that attaches the cable to the brake so I don’t have pictures that will explain any of what I just wrote.
The brake lines got clamped in various places to stop them wandering around.
After some deliberation we decided to go through the gear bracket with the lines.
We ran the line down the edge of the gear and into the first valve on the brakes.
We cut a small piece of line to go between the two valves on the bottom of the brakes. We had experimented with cutting a grommet for the hole in that the line came through but it wouldn’t stay glued in, so instead we just used silicon adhesive to fill in the hole.
When both lines were complete, we used an oil can to push the fluid into the system.
I had quite the good time watching it work its way through the lines.
When the lines were full we glued the brake line cover in place (this picture isn’t of that but shows you where it went).
We tested the brakes and it was pretty hard to move the pedals at all so I think we need to bleed the lines. But we were able to test that the handbrake works when the lever is put into the right position.
Brakes will be finished when they are bled and when the cable is attached, maybe something will actually get finished before something else is started.
About to switch gears to the wings as there is the last major item and something I’d like help with. When the wings were on last time I traced around the wing root so that we knew where we could drill holes for the wires to go through the fuselage but I’m not real confident I did a very good job so the wings will go back on briefly to verify the location of the holes. They’ll come off for us to drill the holes, and then back on for installation of the struts, flaperons and slats.