Matt's RV-7 Project

As best I can tell, I have finished running all the wires that pass through the cabin. Following a good vacuuming, I tidied up all the wiring runs under the floor and replaced the temporary twist-ties with plastic zip ties. I do love the look of an orderly wiring harness:

Everything is finished in the aux battery area. I used split corrugated wire loom where the wire bundles pass next to the battery tray, to prevent problems with chafing.

After closing out the center tunnel wiring runs, I reinstalled the aileron trim servo. The wires that will go to the control sticks don't actually connect to anything yet; that will happen later.

I used more plastic loom in the area where the wire bundle has to squeeze between the servo and the belly skin. Getting all the stuff installed in this tiny area was a (literal) pain.

Forward wiring runs all neatly bundled and secured to the floor:

Of course, up behind the panel it is a different story:

I temporarily reinstalled the fuel pump and selector valve to check the fit. The tubing runs I'd previously made, running from the bulkhead fittings in the F-783B cover support ribs to the fuel valve, won't fit anymore since the wire bundles are now in the way. I think I can work around this by using some different bulkhead fittings. Or at least I hope I can, since the airplane won't be going anywhere if I can't find a way to get fuel to the engine…

I've just been adding one wire after another, making a little progress with every work session. This is one of the two big connectors on the GSU 73, specifically the one that includes most of the engine/airframe analog and frequency inputs. Man, these high-density connectors can be tricky to deal with. The bundle of short wires pointing to the right is a collection of pigtails for all the shielded wires, which will eventually be affixed to the connector backshell. Just visible coming out of the D-sub connector is the harness for the config module, which is a little EEPROM device that backs up important calibration settings.

I keep checking little wiring jobs off my to-do list… here's the magneto P-lead. The magneto switch is upside-down, since closing the switch equals "no spark".

Here's the power and oil pressure connections to the Hobbs meter. I know I don't really need a mechanical hourmeter since I have all this fancy electronic stuff to keep track of the airframe time for me, but I feel better having something that absolutely cannot lose time; I had a bad experience with another vendor's EIS product once upon a time.

Forward of the firewall, the wiring for the engine sensors is just coiled up, since I have to finish the cowl and baffling before I can hook things up for good.