4.0 Hours -
With today’s work, I’ve now passed the 300 hour mark on this build!
Overall, the inboard rib took much longer to install than I had figured it would. Essentially, this was because I still had to finalize the fit of the vent line, fuel pickup, and fuel level sender. Plus, the reinforcement bracket and plate were more difficult to install than I thought they would be.
First off, I removed the inboard rib and slid the vent line and snap bushings into place.
The vent line has to be installed before the inboard rib. My vent clip worked well and the length was good.
Then, I grabbed the T-708 access plate and started working on setting up the fuel level sender. I’m using the Stewart Warner float type senders that Van’s sells, and the first thing I had to do was hook them up to a multi-meter to make sure they worked. The plans say that the meter should read about 32 ohms at full and 240 at empty. Mine came out to 30.2 and 248.2, so I’m in the ballpark.
I finally tested my Stewart Warner fuel level senders...248.2 ohms on empty.
30.2 ohms on full.
I then installed five nutplates on the access plate which will be used to attach the sender. After the nutplates were riveted, I bent the float wire on the sender according to dimensions on the plans. When I went to test the fit of the float, I ran into a slight problem. I couldn’t get the fuel level sender to fit the access plate correctly…mine was turned about 45 degrees compared to the plans. It took me quite awhile to figure out what was wrong, and, as usual, it was something dumb on my part. I didn’t realize that the fuel senders came in two models…one for the left tank and one for the right. I was trying to fit the left model in the right tank! As soon as I figured this out, I grabbed the other sender and fit it to the access plate…it fit perfectly. Oh well, always good to catch these things during the initial fit instead of when they are going together permanently! Once installed, the float reached the top of the tank on full and almost reached the bottom on empty. I’m happy with this because I would rather have some extra fuel in the tank when the gauge reads empty.
I bent the float arm wire per the plans.
Next, I test fit the fuel pickup. I’m using the pre-fabricated fuel pickups from Van’s. These wouldn’t be hard to make, but the ones from Van’s are nice and they aren’t too expensive either. As usual, it fit the tank perfectly, so I went ahead and mixed some sealant, installed and torqued the fuel pickup, riveted the anti-rotation bracket and sealed it all up.
I test fit the access panel, fuel pickup and fuel level sender. Everything fit perfectly on my first try.
A view of the inboard rib with all hardware attached.
I installed the fuel pickup and anti-rotation bracket. As with everything else on the tank...lot's of sealant.
The inside of the access panel after the fuel pickup was attached. I'm using the pre-made pickups from Van's.
With the fit of all the hardware double checked, it was finally time to rivet the inboard rib. As with the outboard rib, all the rivets could be squeezed. Once the rib to skin rivets were all set, I attached the T-405 and T-410 reinforcement angle and plate. This proved to be challenging as it was very difficult to get the holes to line up between all three pieces. With the help of an awl, I finally got everything aligned and used my rivet gun to buck the 6 rivets that bind the three pieces together.
Finally, I used the rest of my sealant to make sure everything was sealed up well. Now, all I have to do is install the baffle and z-brackets, then check for leaks!
The inboard rib is finally riveted!
The reinforcement bracket goes on after the rib is riveted. This was a challenge to get the rivets inserted through the bracket, rib, and reinforcement plate.
