Oil hose improvement

Since spare time is rare these days, when I get to the hangar I try to focus on small improvements that I can finish in a few hours. I leave the gear rigging, wing rigging and weight & balance for when I will have a few hangar days in a row in front of me.

During my last visit to the hangar, I focused on improving an oil hose I wasn't too happy with: the hose going from the top of the oil separator to the engine breather port. When I installed it, I unintentionally induced a little bit of twist into it:

The above hose end setup forced quite a bit of bending in the hose as well. Switching to a 30 deg hose end helped in reducing the bending while still giving proper clearance to access the oil dipstick:

I made sure this time there was no twist in the hose and it turned out better.

I am about to seal the gap between the fuse side panels and firewall with RTV. That's the reason behind the green masking tape you see in the pictures above.

Next small project: change the oil sump fitting from the swivel type to straight type fitting. 

Brake lines

Yeah I know it's been a long long time since I posted! Progress has been slow lately. Among other reasons, the commute to the hangar is a factor that doesn't help in winter time. Just to give you an idea, here's the view I have through the hangar window:

Not a time to fly a Pitts.

The long time readers of my blog will remember that I rotated my brake calipers back. I took a pause from the wing rigging exercise to work on re-routing the brake lines which accomodate the new caliper location (see original post here). I hesitated between leaving the original 45° AN823 fitting on the calipers or put a straight AN816 nipple. Wherever access allows it, I prefer installing AN816's over angle fittings since they can be torqued properly without wondering about the fitting orientation.

I was happy to find that I had proper clearance with the wheelpant caliper cover. I therefore installed the straight fittings and rerouted the lines accordingly:

Once all the couplings secured, I pumped brake fluid with a car oiler from the bottom up using the procedure recommended on the Grove Gear website. It was the first time I filled a brake system so I was worried about getting spungy brake pedals. Throughout the process, I looked carefully through the 1/8" ID plastic tube connected to the oiler to ensure that no air bubbles were getting pumped. The brake pedals ended up being quite hard : ) Patience paid off.

Finally I had to cut a notch in the wheelpants to properly clear the fitting. 

Next task is to change a few hose ends I'm not happy with in the inverted oil system. I also want to properly seal the gaps between the edges of the firewall with the forward fuselage panels.