The fittings came in from Van’s today so I spent a couple of hours getting the left side fuel sender and pickup done. I bent the wire that holds the float to the dimensions in the plans and then test fit it into the tank. One thing I can’t check since the tank is all closed up is the clearance of the float from the bottom of the tank. I have the wing on a table upside down so the float stays in the full up position. The plans call for the float arm to be no closer to the bottom of the tank than 1/8”. I will have to check this later. I then hooked the sender up to a fuel gauge. I bought the Van’s gauges a while back and actually have decided not to use them since the Dynon 180 will have fuel gauges. But at least I will get some use out of the them before I sell them on VAF. The sender seemed to read right on at full and empty; it was kind of cool to watch the gauge work. The level moves with the slightest of movement from the sender very smoothly.
I next moved onto the fuel pick up, I am using the prefabricated optional pickups Van’s sells that have a tube of screen around the pickup end. I first installed the pickup finger tight to make sure it fits the tank. The blob of proseal in the aft corner bumps the screen but the screen is flexible enough that the fit was not a problem. I then held the fitting in place and tightened the nut to the elbow fitting to the proper torque. After selecting the anti torque bracket that best fit, I clecoed the bracket and fitting in place and gave it another test fit. Happy with the fit I drilled the anti rotation bracket holes to #30 IAW the plans. The -4 rivet seems like over kill for such a small bracket, but I did not have any AN470-3 rivets anyways.
I messed around the rest of the time looking at the seat heater I bought last year. I hooked them up to test the heat and they work great. I then started to look over the front seat and see how I want to run the wiring for the heaters. I will have to think this over some more and hopefully get some ideas fro
