Obligatory social gatherings have dominated a majority of free time lately, so will try to get some updates here:
Another good ring gear is on. A .020" spacer for the Skytec 149NL starter was made so it will disengage properly. There's a FAQ on Skytec's page that there's an issue with Superior ring gears and this starter. We ran the starter multiple times (mostly not under compression) with the shim and it disengages now.
The ring gear carrier was marked with yellow tape to identify the position of the pistons. Timing lights were used to confirm that spark plugs were firing. I wasn't getting a light on the bottom #4 cylinder so borrowed a couple other timing lights. Ultimately, I replaced the coil since it seemed to be intermittent, but now think there were other factors such as where the timing light pick up was connected (near the spark plug or closer to the coil). Two of the timing lights we used had arrows on the inductive pick up so were sensitive to the polarity of the field off the plug wire. The newer light I had would work either direction. Ross advised that the coils used were for a 2002 Subaru and offered to send a replacement and connector. I could get a coil next day locally and found Oreilly Auto stocked the "Standard Ignition 4 terminal Connector" - part S1931.
I'd decided that running the primary ECU and coil through the VPX wasn't the optimum configuration so added a fuse/terminal block under the pilot seat where the Essential Buss is located and that is it's power source now. Both ECU's are reading identical voltage now whereas, before the A ECU was two tenths of a volt less than the B ECU. The VPX was reconfigured with the SDS A ECU and top coil circuits deleted. The panel switches for the coil and ECU were fed off the fuse panel.
On my "nice to have" list were temp sensors to get an idea how hot the brakes were getting. The Dynon EMS 220 has open ports (normally used for 6 cylinder engines) that I ran the wires for brakes and engine compartment. Some of the sensors were stupid expensive, unavailable or not quite what I wanted. YouTube had some DIY instructions on making thermocouples so I made one and it was within a few degrees of my DVM's probe. I used some 3/8" aluminum tubing to make the housing and mounted nutplates. The thermocouples are bedded in some JB Weld, leaving air pockets inside the tubing to reduce the mass and hopefully improve response time. I know using dissimilar metals for the electrical connections will add some error to the readings, but I'm looking for "will it melt the leg gear" or is it "cool to the touch" types of readings when taxiing. The probes will mount on opposite side of the rotor on the heat shields.
Anticipate an engine run/test and low speed taxi test when the weather allows.
Our local airport T67's LiveATC.net feed was down for a year so I contacted the original host and relocated the equipment to my hangar and got it on line again. Also my buddy's Comanche is down for it's annual and 1000 hour gear AD. When I open the hangar door, can expect 3 or 4 visitors popping in so I have to be diligent to finish tasks after getting distracted.
