panel rewire

[LBPilot82]

Ozman, I know what you mean, and no, I don't think it will ever end!
Panel is looking good. I think I agree with you and George, I would prefer using jumpers from CB to CB as a bus for your exact reason. My IA who is going to be signing off my work likes the copper bus bar so hopefully, he will let me do it my way. At this point, I've got the panel apart and most everything removed (radios, instruments, and most all of the wire). The plane was restored and rewired in 1991 so most of the wire isn't that old but since I've decided to redo the whole panel, might as well go all the way. I think the most shocking thing I found was the size of the coffee cans... I mean old gyros, behind that panel . Must have sold units by the size in those days! Now I get to start making new brackets and mounting all the new stuff.
I do have a question. Going through the 170A manual and looking at the wiring diagrams, the previous owner changed a few of the circuits. For example, he wired the dome light into the instrument light circuit (actually what I would do) but the parts book shows it wired into the landing light circuit along with the cigar lighter. Is this legal to make minor changes to how things are wired? It certainly poses no safety issues that I can see as long as you've got the proper wire size and CB's. One thing I want to do is change the landing/taxi light circuit so I can have UP as taxi only while DOWN is still both.

[GAHorn]

Minor re-wiring is no problem as long as it is documented and circuit protection devices are properly re-labelled.

The short "jumpers" are approved methods in accordance with 43.13B, so...if your IA has a problem with it, simply direct him to 43.13B.

[oz502man]

LB,

Thanks for the compliment on the dash. I have been away this week (up in the hills spraying fertiliser) so sorry for the late reply.
In the Australian regs there are requirments for alternative instrument lighting i.e. on a separate circuit for night flying. I assume there are similar rules there as most later Cessnas have a red flood light built near the dome light. My C170 has a Grimes flood light ( not the torpedo type, but the type with the red and clear filter and adjustable focus) fitted to the roof and is powered from the live side of the dome light switch. I assume that this was because my plane was once in NVFR category and I want to put it back in that category again one day. So for this reason I changed the power source for the dome light/flood light from the instrument light circuit. I am not a 'strictly by the book' type of guy but I do believe it makes sense to have redundancy in the event of an instrument light failure and its as simple as using a different CB for the dome light.

If you end up using the copper bus bar I would recommend cutting some heatshrink into apropriate lengths to insulate between each CB to minimize the chances of arc something out back there. Those copper strips can handle some serious current and if you are unfortunate enough to short it out with something you'll have some serious sparks and tremendous heat.

Cheers,

Noel

[LBPilot82]

It's finally done!!!!! It's only been 4 1/2 months since I started but she's back flying again. This "radio fix" turned into a complete Garmin radio stack, total rewire of the airplane, all new instruments (overhauled A/S and tach), and custom panel to add a VOR (the one used peice of equipment). I really wanted to stick with an original style while integrating newer technology. So far, I couldn't be happier with the panel. While all of this was going on, I ran out on annual. During the annual, we found a cylinder which had been showing signs of low compression which needed to be pulled. Put on a new ECI cylinder and now I can finally go to the airport to fly and not just admire a hangar queen. My wife and I took it to a taildragger fly-in at Cable airport in Upland, CA last weekend. Lots of cool stuff to see. Miles, your not to far, would've been nice to see your 170 their.

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[hilltop170]

Nice panel! I don't recall if you said whether you fly it IFR or not, but if you do, I'm sure you'll agree it's a nice IFR airplane. Saving the glove box will come in handy. Keeping all the pink knobs adds a nice touch too. Good job.

[cessna170bdriver]

My wife and I took it to a taildragger fly-in at Cable airport in Upland, CA last weekend. Lots of cool stuff to see. Miles, your not to far, would've been nice to see your 170 their.

I've been to Cable several times and really enjoy being there. Sorry I missed it this time! I need to put more effort into finding out what's going on in the neighborhood.

Miles