Day 169

Well, we did not make a lot of physical progress today, but we learned a lot. It started we were going to work on getting all of the oil lines made and hooked up today. As we looked into what all it was going to take, we realized there were a few things we were going to have to do to complete the system.

First, we learned we do not have any oil for our Rotax 915iS engine. Haha. We had some fluids that had come in the firewall forward crate and made the mistake of assuming one of them was the oil needed. Turns out it was only the coolant and distilled water.

Anyways, we got some Aeroshell Sport Plus 4 oil coming now. Specifically we needed it today because the instruction manual says to use it as a lubricant to help put the hose fittings on as you heat up the hose to soften the rubber. Then the manual states: “Slide the end of the hose onto the fitting in ONE continuous movement, DO NOT hesitate or stop halfway.” (Capitalization for emphasis) Intense.

As well than, we needed a table vice to hold the fittings as the hose is put on them. We had a vice, but had never installed it on one of our work benches. So did that today as well.

We did measure, cut and mark all of the hoses that we would be needing for the system. As well we placed the oil reservoir to help make sure the measurements of the hoses would be correct.

Today as we were looking to see how the throttle cable was to be routed and installed, the defrost vent tube fell off for the 197’th time while trying to work underneath there. Denis had a good suggestion of using metal clamps instead of the zip ties that the manual states. (Just cannot get them tight enough to keep the tube from sliding off) Got a pack of 4 ordered and will change all of them out. Pretty sure this will be a far superior application. Once they arrive we will do on update on how it works.

We are also working on a solution for the wire loom firewall pass-through. There is a significant opening. We went to the Slings Facebook forum to ask what others have done. The general consensus has been that people use either fire resistant foam, or high temp RTV to fill the gap. We’re going to try and make a pair of plates that will fit the opening and hold the three looms within a rubber grommet. Then use some High temp RTV to seal everything up. Don’t really want to use it to fill the entirety of the hole though. We feel there is a better solution, if we can manage to make something.

P.S.

We heard that our upholstery kit will be getting shipped soon!