ELT and Regular Maintenance

 The new 406 ELT is installed.  This was a startling amount of work.  The old wiring from front to back was not secured in a manner I was pleased with.  The insulation was also quite hard and brittle.  So I obtained some shielded 3-conductor aviation wiring to replace it.  This might seem like a simple job but it absolutely was not.

The rear of the aircraft needed rubber grommets installed in the bulkheads.  The cargo floor needed to be removed.  The seats and floor were removed.  The interior trim was removed.  This took several hours.

Once that was done the wire could be pulled and secured in place.  I cable laced it into the existing cable chase and along the side of the cockpit and up to the ash tray which I was using for the new switch mount.

Then everything gets re-installed.  The rivets holding the old tray were drilled out and the machine screws for the new tray installed.  These needed offsets for the length since they interfered with the ARC 345 ELT base.  

Tese the continuity of the wiring and reinstalled everything.  Installed the new switch and tested it and it was done.  This seems simple but it took well over 20 hours of labour to perform.

While the aircraft was apart we also repaired the muffler heat shroud.  This involved removing it, and this required the removal of the tail-pipe and left hand exhaust manifold.  Again, a massive amount of work.

Flew it for a few hours on Sunday and checked all the nuts, and it looks in good order with everything in place.  All ready for our trip in May to Vancouver!