Jabiru J400 Builder Log

Jabiru J400 Builder Log - July 2006

7/29/2006 5:07pm-12:35am
1) installed the bottom cowl and then realized i need to do the scat tubing first
2) removed bottom cowl and installed scat tubing on the cabin heat... i also tried to install scat tubing on the carb heat muff but the 2inch scat isn't long enough... short a bit...will have to order
3) connected the fuel lines and the float fuel guage to the wing tanks...not an easy job...i suppose connecting before attaching the wing would be easier but not practical with 2 people...using a bit of engine oil on the fitting makes it much easier to slip on the tube...hope this doesn't cause it to slip out too easily... but the rear fuel fitting hose is tough to insert without
4) fit the left and right hand side covers that cover the vertical fuel lines in the cockpit below the ball fuel guages
5) installed the stall horn
6) installed the side covers using hook and loop... not sure if it'll hold in the long run and i don't like the gap because of the fastning thickness...but we'll see

7/28/2006 10:30pm-2am
1) drilled and riveted the strobe/nav box to the underside of the rear luggage compartment near the elt... had to use washers with rivets to hold
2) pulled through the central conduit to the cockpit 2 wire hookup wire plus 2 wires for switching strobe, nav, and taxi lights
3) stripped the wires at the cockpit and connected to 3 switches... strobes at 5amps, nav lights at 5amps switch breaker to 1amp switch breaker, taxi light at 5amps switch breaker to 1amp breaker that is missing... the reason i have a 5 and a 1 breaker in series is because these don't come in 1amp switch breakers... odd..and i'd like all the same..so i hope this doesn't cause any problems
4) wired the strobe housing connector and then connected it to the strobe/nav box...kind of a big clump of wires... i hope the proximity doesn't cause problems with the intercom at the back nor the magnetometer...i've tried to keep them apart as much as possible
5) installed the prop... didn't tighten anything at this time...kinda late so i'll verify and do so next time

7/27/2006 7:29pm-10:53pm
1) installed compass correction card with a rivet to the compass bracket
2) installed 5amp switch circuit breaker to compass
3) installed 5amp switch circuit breaker to fuel pump
4) installed the 25amp MASTER backup switch circuit breaker
5) installed the 25amp INSTRUMENT backup switch circuit breaker
6) installed the 25amp INSTRUMENT switch circuit breaker
7) installed the 30amp GROUND switch circuit breaker... i figured this might be good to prevent any unintentional grounds...such as you forget to install the starter ground and the engine finds an alternate ground through your switch to the master ground somehow...other reasons...i figured it doesn't hurt? maybe?
8) a bit confused on the strobe/nav lights wiring... instructions need some clarification so i'll get to them tomorrow... probably will work on the aux power tomorrow too... i intend on installing a 115V outlet to power the lcd and other stuff like laptops if needed

7/26/2006 9:25pm-11:51pm
1) made some more lights using the flourescent on the sawhorses that are now free
2) attached flaps
3) attached ailerons
4) i realized that having a parts monkey (Tricia ;) is the best addition to the hangar... just finding the tools and the parts in your hangar and gathering them in one area is sometimes more than half of what makes you tired working... so find yourself a parts monkey ;) ... one thing to watch out for though is sometimes your parts monkey will be monkeying around and you'll have to yell at it to get it in line ;)
5) connected aileron cables on both ends
6) connect flaps on both ends

7/25/2006 7pm-12:08am
1) had to buy a right angle drill so that i can enlargen the bottom strut fuselage attachment point on the fuselage...had to cut a perfectly good drill in half and resharpen to fit and drill with the fairings in place
2) attached the struts
3) attached the wings

7/24/2006 5:15pm-8pm
1) boy it just keeps getting better... so i got the JPI rpm sensor and cht gasket probes today in the mail... this sensor is essentially an L looking thing which is really just a bracket holding a wire...the engineer's suggestion to my tech support rep was to mount this sensor on the mount that jabiru has for the VDO sensor... nope aint gona make it... this sensor is too long and the tab will cut it right in two... furthermore, after a discussion with this rep he tells me that it needs to be within 1/4inch of a magnet... well... that isn't going to happen either... first of all, the magnets are on the other side of the flywheel... second of all... the magnets on this flywheel seem to have N-S-N or S-N-S polarity because there's a horseshoe metal sheet sandwich there (lack of a real name?...the same type metal sandwich that are in transformers to reduce eddy currents) that bends the polarity of the magnet back around to the gears (outside of the flywheel instead of the center of the flywheel)... he informed me it needs to be N-S type of magnet... it is odd that it is 3 polar off of one magnet... but i guess there's probably some electrical need for it in the magneto... so it's back to the engineers at JPI again and since they are all at oshkosh it won't be resolved for at least another week...
2) well... it seems i got more trouble...wish i had tried the CHT gasket probes before I spoke with the JPI tech support guy... these don't fit either... their probe is way too large and the spark plug goes right through... what the hell? unbelievable... if it weren't for me sending them the installation manual and photos of this engine, they wouldn't know what it looks like!
3) alrighty...so onto something else... i ran a drill through the mounting holes for the wing root attachments and the struts so that the bolts fit nicely and can rotate freely... last time i had the wings on i had to use AN3 bolts because these AN4 just wouldn't fit unless if i tried a hammer...AN5 for the struts... i wasn't able to run a drill through the bottom struts as the strut fairings are there... hmmm... really should have done this back when there weren't any... i gotta admit i thought of this back then but laziness back then got me herei'll have to get one of those 90 degree drills for tight spaces to do it..

7/23/2006 6:12pm-10:45pm
1) assembled the elevator & trim assembly...made sure that there's the required up and down travel with the angle measuring cutouts provided... some sanding at the center stick control stop up front was required
2) reattached the rudder cable at the tail
3) tricia tightened the seat belt anchors
4) called jabiru in australia but they haven't returned my call... i've called them a few times over the last year and somehow come out less than satisfied every time i talk with someone... i'm not sure if it's the language barrier (yeah this is kinda funny.. lack of better phrase) or they really don't want to talk to me... i must say that the conversations with the US dealer are excellent however..the only problem is sometimes reaching the ones who actually can answer your questions accurately... i get the feeling they try to screen calls too as the key people (Ben & Pete) i guess are busy building aircraft... they really should provide a seperate tech support line for us customers or provide corrections for the manual... nothing more frustrating than having a few parts in your hand that you know go somewhere more or less but not sure how to orient them because they aren't mentioned at all in the manual nor any pictures to refer too (funny thing is they aren't even in the CAD-like drawings in some cases)... and here's another tip for them... just go around and take a TON of pictures everywhere on the plane at high resolution and give them to us... nearly no instructions will be needed with those...

7/21/2006 6:32pm-10:40pm
1) wired the regulator using 10AWG wire... regulator was connected to a 20amp switch circuit breaker... not sure if 20amp is enough...probably should have used 25...we'll see how it goes
2) wired the master through the shunt using 10AWG wire too...looks like i'm out of it...will have to order more...i will use 10AWG for the instrument switch too.. master switch circuit breaker is 25amps
3) so today was Tricia's turn to bitch and whine... i sent Tricia on some errands including a trip to Home Depot to get me 4 5/32 or 1/8 plastic, brass, or aluminum screws for the bluemountain magnetometer... she came back fuming mad cause she looked and looked and came back empty handed after nearly 3hrs... so her complaint was why the heck doesn't BM just include them (afterall it was $6500 right?)?...even if we don't use them, it's still nice to include them... they did include 6ft serial cable for it that wasn't used...but still nice that they included
4) installed the magnetometer with aluminum screws...and attached the cable to it
5) installed the ELT remote at the cockpit under the panel... used 5minute to epoxy a fiberglass bracket

7/20/2006 6pm-11:24pm
1) wired the HID to a circuit breaker switch of 5amps
2) tricia mounted the HID into the bracket on the lower cowl...looks good with the HID on...almost like it was supposed to be there
3) installed the carb heat cable
4) installed the cabin heat cable...not too thrilled with it... the steel looking cable isn't very smooth as the other black plastic ones that came with the jabiru kit for the carb and choke...
5) installed the choke cable...

7/19/2006 6:07pm-11:04pm
1) double checked the wiring from yesterday... seems that i forgot to wire the ground to the actual ground buss...so i did that.. wouldn't work very well in a closed loop would it?!
2) drilled 1/2 inch holes on the panel at the top right towards the firewall for the circuit breakers...drilled 10... i think i only need 8.... but if that changes i have space for more.. of course the reason i don't need more is because i plan on using potter & brumfield switches with circuit breakers built in... less congestion this way... i initially planned on using the switches and circuit breakers that come with jabiru but it seems i can't find exact matches around here...so i opted for everything the same..this way 'on' will be in one direction on all switches... funny thing is that the P&G ones don't come with on-off tabs to mark...very odd..maybe they cost extra?... it seems everything is 'extra' in the airplane world... would you like some threads for that bolt sir? ;)
3) installed and wired a 1amp circuit breaker for the intercom
4) installed and wired a 3 amp circuit breaker for bluemountain efis
5) wired 2 fuse links in line for the ammeter wires that go to the EDM900
6) grounded the EDM900 to the engine as requested and wired the positive to a 5amp circuit breaker to the master buss
7) wired the microair vhf radio to a 5 amp circuit breaker
8) wired the microair T2000 transponder to a 5 amp circuit breaker

7/18/2006 5:05pm-11:09pm
1) connected the pilot PTT and the memory toggle to the switches on the control stick... i used both small switches that came with the wiring harness kit but it's a bit odd that there was one miniature button switch and one toggle...and two large button switches that came with the kit but only one would fit on the stick ... so i used the miniature toggle for the memory...we'll see how that works ...i might get a second miniature button type
2) an update... so the second JPI guy seems to be getting back to me day after day with a new question... i guess the engineer is working on it and he emails me something new everyday.. but the type of questions they ask makes it pretty clear they didn't actually test this on a jabiru... for instance, they don't know that the magnets are on the flywheel instead of the magnetos... they don't know that it has neither Slick nor Bendix magnetos... etc... at least someone is working on it though... i don't think that the solution is impossible, i think the easiest is to just send me a VDO sensor that it already has a mount for...otherwise, they will need to think of some contraption to attach their sensor
3) connected the VHF coax adapter at the cockpit...not sure if i connected it exactly as it's supposed to be since i don't have any instructions but it seems to be holding good and there's no short so i presume it's good... i crimped the center pin but the ground is a screw type with no crimping
4) installed the small music jack under the panel behind the JPI engine monitor... the engine monitor is supposed to be connected to it so i will probably need a splitter so that i can connect some music source too
5) installed the copilot PTT switch on the top right side of the instrument panel...this way its out of the way since it'll rarely get used..and if i get instruction in the plane, the instructor can still use it...the instructions say to put it at the throttle but i think passengers will just run into it accedinately and there's no easy way to do it
6) wired all the remaining intercom wires at the cockpit... done with the microair and intercom wiring... looking good...quite nice to see that i'm nearly done with the wiring...panel hopefully no wires are crossed

7/17/2006 7:30pm-11:05pm
1) so i called the dealer about the missing regulator connector...turns out there isn't a matching connector that comes with it... what a bummer... i was told that most just cut the connector and install their own molex type connector or use fastons and wire individually.. so i bought a molex type although it's more like a trailer electrical plug.. with 6 connectors....i think it should work...
2) wired the pilot/copilot headset jacks... i used 22AWG wire on the backseat jacks... it's not sheilded... there doesn't seem to be a consensus whether shielded is required or recommended it seems...so i'll use 16awg unshielded for the front... if i detect a lot of noise i might have to reconsider...unfortunately, i'm out of 22awg... but i think 16awg for the front is better since it's easy for someone to kick them from the backseat... i gotta say though...i'm not a big fan of wiring electrical and fuel lines together through the center column... in most cases it's probably ok, but not a good design... if one shorts out it could be real trouble...i wonder if other builders wire the electrical through the ceiling or the sides somehow... i presume the headset jack wires are quite low current... but i do have a strobe unit to wire through too...
3) routed the toggle and ptt wires for the copilot...since i'm using a sigtronics intercom many of the wires on the J200 radio wiring hardness won't be used and will end up being cut...

7/16/2006 5:40pm-11:32pm
1) cut the center conduit in the fuselage to allow cables through and out at the elt
2) routed the elt, headset plug(s), and the bluemountain magnetometer cables through the conduit and out at the front
3) rewired the bluemountain OAT connection using molex type connector instead of the fastons..this way i won't get the 3 white wires confused in case the labels drop
4) routed the LED belly strobe/landing cable to the back
5) wired all the intercom jacks in the back seat with solder

7/15/2006 4:50pm-9:18pm
1) alrighty...so i'm back in the hangar after lots of driving around town trying to find certain key parts... unfortunately i didn't find the matching regular electrical adapter that i mentioned in my complaint from yesterday (not that this is a surprise...where would i find something so unique locally?)...so i'll have to wait till monday to put in another call... i sort of found some adaptors for the pitot and static to take it from 1/4 to the bluemountain 1/8... it seems though 1/4- 3/16 adaptor actually works better than the 1/4- 1/8 i found...that 1/8 doesn't hold well...so jamming it in the 3/16 seems to make a very sturdy connection
2) it seems that one of the ends of the prewired T2000 transponder harness (cost extra) is a DB15? which i presume is already configured to connect to a standard? altitude encoder...but since the bluemountain has an altitude encoder output, i decided to wire it there along with the OAT sensor... the wiring looks simple enough and you just match pin to pin comparing the two diagrams...the bluemountain has its own configuration and of course uses the DB25 which i bought today..using the solder type DB25 instead of the crimp on..didn't take to long to wire all these wires...about an hour to put it all together... and i think the T2000 is pretty much completely wired now other than power... one note is that the old hardner has a red wire positive to altitude encoder...i don't see a corresponding wire on the bluemountain probably since it has it's own power i assume?
3) it seems i'm missing the radio manual at the hangar...so will look for it at home or online... i have some diagrams including in the aircraft manual but they seem to be referring to a PM intercom and i have sigtronics... did some cleaning up and now i'm too tired to actually do anything else

7/14/2006 9:30pm-12:19pm
1) boy i just spent the last 3 hrs bitching about suppliers... so I thought bluemountain EFIS would escape but i be wrong... first of all, this device is $6500...not that that is the problem, but when they don't include a cheap ass $2 DB25 connector for their OAT/Altitude encoder makes it pretty silly when they have the power connector and about 1ft of wire already wired... come on...$6500 not enough to include a crappy db25 connector? why make us newbies go find something like this? another night of no work because of one silly part missing
2) so back to some bitching on jabiru... so i have the regulator and the regulator has this funky female adapter with 6 faston male connectors within? either i lost this connector that i don't remember ever getting, or there wasn't one as the parts list indicates... so now i have to go find another crappy $1 part that fits there and its not the sort of thing that home depot carries i bet...
3) so back to some bitching on JPI instead... i'm not sure if i've logged my previous bitching about it here so i'll sum it up now and maybe i'll include a whole dedicated page for it later since there's really too much to tell to fit it all in here... ok...so the instrument was $2k which is actually a great deal since it goes for $3-4K normally (there's a whole story here which leads to some bitching about how a different company Gulf Coast screwed up my order including this instrument that led to a pity conversation to the JPI directly in which i ended up buying direct from...but i'll explain this one another day)... so back to the JPI EDM900... first of all, the instructions are poor (but this is really not a surprise anymore nor even humorous)... when i bought this instrument direct, they had me fill out a whole sheet on the type of engine so they know it was for a jabiru... but nooo... lots of problems... bad instructions that don't match the engine, missing rpm sensor, CHT bayonett probes... have they even seen this engine? there is no place to stick the bayonet CHT probes... so i sent them back to trade for the gasket CHT type... however, i'm missing an RPM sensor that apparently only comes in Bendix or Slick which the 3300 has neither magneto of (it's some custom thing on jabiru)... and i've given up on the first tech support guy which i had to practically beg to try and help me as a week as gone by and now i'm on the second tech guy which personally seems genuinly interested in helping... are they aware they sold this kit for a jabiru? have they actually tested this thing on one? and of course you get the secretary blockade... the first tech guy admitted he didn't know anything about the 3300 and so i asked the secretary to pass me to an engineer or a manager so that we can get this resolved... nope..neither...and this is where i had to beg the first tech support guy to help that never came around... what kind of tech support is this? do they know who they are selling these kits to?... more on this at another time and hopefully it'll get resolved.. but one thing is for sure, when i bought their instrument, i thought i bought a solution to my engine monitoring problem...not another kit that i have to go figure out a way to adapt... i really should have taken it more seriously when i read their disclaimer saying 'they only compensate for warranty parts and not labor..return the kit if you don't agree'... maybe there's a good reason for this

7/13/2006 5:15pm-11pm
1) so i bought some aeroshell 100 at the local FBO on the field.. quite happy that they had it and the aeroshell W100 which i'll need later after breakin
2) wired the keyed switch... tested it with the multimeter and then tried the start position and the solenoid did click ...seems like all is well...i should probably turn the engine over and test it before i attach more instruments..
3) filled the engine with the oil i bought...
4) had to install the diode on the starter solenoid according to the switch instructions...so i did that
5) started installing the pitot and the static ports for the instruments but i'm missing adapters to connect them all yet again... so i'll buy these adapters tomorrow and call it quits for today... working in the hangar sucks...just say no! :)

7/12/2006 8:30pm-11:30pm
1) spliced the magneto wires for the switch ignition...since i didn't know if this engine has ignition coupling or retard breaker i called it a day
2) tricia fixed the ELT ground plane again :) ...this time it looks almost done ;)
3) tricia installed some 'experimental' stickers...yeah now it's looking like an experimental

7/11/2006 5:57pm-12:40pm
1) installed the buss bars ... btw, i used a similar design for buss bars... i made these on a mill at home...quite tedious but not hard with a mill...i hope the faston connectors stay on :)
2) installed the transponder antena
3) refitting the instrument panel again took a long time... some of the bolts such as the engine mount ones are in the way of the panel and took a while to cut out minimal sections to fit the nuts and plates... what a pain... but looks good now
4) installed compass on instrument panel
5) reattached the rudder and the elevator... boy, it's starting to look like a plane now... :)
6) installed the ground buss bars...there's two...one on the inside and the other on the outside of the firewall joined by a bolt through the firewall

7/10/2006 10pm- 11:43pm
1) routed the magneto wires and spliced the ends... since i need more terminals, i won't be able to complete this
2) i installed a 4AWG cable to the firewall but i think i'm not going to use it... i plan on routing the starter cables directly to the batter for less connection points... and then the cable to the firewall will be a 10AWG with a circuit breaker...at least that's what i'm thinking... i'm not too fond of the idea of allowing unlimited current through the firewall since i don't want the starter to find itself a new ground (through thin engine sensor wires or instruments...) in case the starter ground goes bad ... not sure if this is a good or bad idea...will think it over
3) Tricia fixed the ELT ground plane... also installed some 'experimental' stickers required by the FAA

7/9/2006 6pm-12:21pm
1) wired the fuel pressure sensor to the harness
2) wired the fuel flow to the harness
3) wired the ammeter shunt to the harness
4) installed retained nuts on the instrument panel to hold the panel
5) fitted the lcd touchscreen to the instrument panel...was a bit tricky but ended well... looks good...gona be a real cool moving map at that size :) ... no more paper maps

7/8/2006 8:30pm-2:06am
1) used 1/2 inch copper strips to make a ground for the elt.. used a 2 inch aluminum circle at the base as a washer on the antena to make connection with all the copper strips
2) wired all the EGT probes
3) hooked up the fuel pressure sensor at a T between the mechanical fuel pump and the carbuerator..firesleeve over sensor and plastic tied to engine mount
4) hooked up the MAP sensor to the bottom nipple on the carb... the MAP sensor is located on the inside side of the firewall clamped to the firewall... connected by a 1/8 vinyl tube
5) wired the outside air temp probe to the EDM900 cable
6) wired the oil temp probe to the EDM900 cable
7) installed the EDM900 ammeter shunt onto the firewall above the battery
8) hooked up the oil pressure sensor to the EDM900 harness... not sure if there's a specific orientation to the wiring... very poor instructions from JPI on the EDM900

7/7/2006 9:00pm-1:38am
1) installed oil temperature sensor by replacing the stock sensor in the oil sump...didn't use the large adapter that came with the jpi sensor
2) replaced teflon tape on electric fuel pump fittings with teflon pipe liquid sealant
3) installed JPI fuel flow sensor before the electric fuel plump... rearranged that whole center console fuel area to accomodate the sensor
4) crimped and installed the VHF coax to the antena at the tail... riveted with 5-8 rivets and used a brass washer

7/6/2006 6:30pm-10:56pm
1) started installing the EDM-900 fuel flow transducer but it seems that there's fittings and a missing wiring diagram that i'll need...so skipped that and went on to the EGT
2) installed all 6 EGT probes...but didn't wire them as i need some wire crimpers... boy i seem to be missing something or other... also will need D9 crimpers for things like the fuel flow
3) torqued the EGT to 4 lbs-ft (45 in-lbs)
4) OAT (outside air temp) sensor for the EDM-900 installed in the copilot airscoop
5) installed the air scoop eyeballs and the bluemountain temperature probe in the pilots side
6) installed the muffler with 2 big springs on each side...
7) installed the carb heat and the cabin heat muff onto the muffler

7/5/2006 5-12:am
1) have done maybe 40hrs of work on the instrument panel and such ... mostly research on electrical design and what sort of details i might need to know before i start
2) installed the ELT on the large fiberglass bracket made a few months ago in the tail... i will need to get some strips of copper for a ground plane..it's on order...
3) installed the nose wheel steering link assembly... at least the remaining parts that it needed...still needs tuning
4) tricia painted the engine mount with this plastic dip which is really a rubber dip...same stuff as the rudder pedals...it's on the nose wheel too