John Henry
07-17-2005, 07:10 PM
Well I spent most of the weekend tidying up the wiring on the Pittbull and tried the battery. Nothing!!! :eek: :( Absoutely nothing!! Now I'm not a neophite to wiring and electrical controls so I was at whits end wondering why the EIS and strobes wouldn't work. Not even the bendix for the prerotator would fire. Several of the EAA 974 clan stopped by the hanger and we all proceded to trace out the wiring. Dummy here had grounded a hot wire. :o I also noticed that the wire from the battery was quite hot and the breaker hadn't popped. :eek: I re routed the power wires in AC grade 10 and tried it over after tracing each one out. WHAM! it all came on like designed! :) The surplus breaker form a Cessna turned out to be bad. Brand new and it took 25 amps to blow a 15 amp breaker. We checked the pile of junk I've accrued and came up with another 15 amp that tested right. Man It's great having all of these retired GE engine engineers around! :) The EIS worked and prerotator bendix fired when switched. All is good. I spent till the wee hours of the mornrng mounting the cowl and last night the prop was hung. That powerfin prop is beautiful! :) Today the throttle cables were mounted and preparations for first engine start were initiated. This is a new Rotax 503 DCDI with oil injection. I have the Rotax manuals for start but if anyone out there has experience in starting a new virgin engine I'd greatly appreciate your insight. Gear case oil and safety wiring is yet to be done. I have no primer. Tomorrow I plan on doing the throttle adjustments according to Rotax manual and then rock back and ponder the next step. I don't want to repeat a snafu like I did with the wiring. I may wait till Mentone and seek information from the wealth of experience out there. I think it would be great to do a first engine start there but I want to do it right from the begining. What ever time it takes to do it right.