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Honestly, What would you do?

Veetail88

Well Known Member
So while tidying up my wiring getting ready to rivet on the top skin, I end up with this.



I don't like it, but redoing pins, end connectors and bundle ties would take a LOT of time and probably really diminish my motivation.

I'm pretty sure that it would just be ok if I leave it, which I'm leaning towards, but I'm curious what others would do. I'm guessing I'll get a lot of "build on" responses, but I'm sure some you would freak over leaving this be. By the way, it's behind the panel and no will really ever see it, except you folks!
 
if it were me :p I would pull just a little bit of slack out of each wire from between each of your wire ties and Adel clamps to spread out the extra wire length throughout the entire run. (god, I hope that makes sense)
 
As someone that is very familiar with future upgrades...you may end up someday wishing you had a little extra slack in one of them wires! :)
 
I'd fix it and make it right...

"PREFERRED DISCRETE WIRE HARNESSES
Harnesses exhibit a neatly organized layout, with smooth bends and sufficient stress relief. Connector cable clamps and cable straps are
properly set. NASA-STD-8739.4 [ 19.6.1.e ]"

"ACCEPTABLE UNIFORM CONDUCTOR TENSION
The conductors exhibit uniform tension throughout the length of the harness. No bunching, bowing, looping, kinks, etc.
NASA-STD-8739.4 [ 19.6.1.e.3 ]"
 
if it were me :p I would pull just a little bit of slack out of each wire from between each of your wire ties and Adel clamps to spread out the extra wire length throughout the entire run.

Yep.

As someone that is very familiar with future upgrades...you may end up someday wishing you had a little extra slack in one of them wires! :)

Double yep.
 
... pull just a little bit of slack out of each wire from between each of your wire ties and Adel clamps to spread out the extra wire length throughout the entire run.

I had a situation similar to the OP's and this was my solution too.
 
Yep fix it up. Yes you know it's there and maybe you can live with it but if you ever go to sell the plane and someone else sees this wiring mess they will wonder where else you may have cut corners and start looking harder at the rest of the workman ship.
 
5X yep, as one who is just beginning a panel upgrade.

But...that really wasn't the OP's question. He may (or may not) have put service loops appropriately on each end of each wire, as is good practice.

He wanted to know if he should "clean up" the harness to eliminate *mid-harness* excess and messy wiring. :)
 
But...that really wasn't the OP's question. He may (or may not) have put service loops appropriately on each end of each wire, as is good practice.

He wanted to know if he should "clean up" the harness to eliminate *mid-harness* excess and messy wiring. :)

Yep...

Snip three tyraps and form the bunch into three seperate bundles - re-tyrap or lacing cord the three new bundles....
 
Sometimes a piece of nylon spiral wrap a few inches long and a few minutes of adjusting out the slack differences can go a long way towards hiding one of those "short bundles of different length loops" ;)
 
It all depends on what you like;
Do you like slaving away in a hot hangar all summer working out the artistic bend of your wiring harness to appease the wiring gods of NASA et al while your buddies are soaring above the clouds and breaking the surley bonds of earth etc?
Or do you want to do a good safe workman like job and get 'er done so you can join your buds?
 
So glad I never posted pictures of my wiring bundles. It's one of the few times I ignored my OCD. Plane flies fine.

The plane will fly fine with single wires vibrating around the place. The possible movement under vibration is why we make single wires into bundles.

It's really a long term reliability question - but, as always, your choice...
 
Thank you! Decision made!

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses.
The primary purpose I posted this to begin with was to see if there was some real safety concern that was not obvious to me by leaving the wiring loops like that.

I do however have to confess that additional motivation to posting was to enjoy all the responses I would get, knowing full well the full range of answers I would get kind of amuses me.

The responses are indicative of the type of builders they are. There are folks that build show-planes, folks that enjoy the pursuit of creating a craft that has been safety engineered and executed to perfection, folks that don?t know what they don?t know and assume if they don?t know it couldn?t possibly be important, and then all the rest of us, who fall somewhere in between all of this. No offense meant to anyone, it just is what it is.

I definitely am not in the first two categories. Wish I were, but I?m not. What I am interested in however is a finished product that has a reasonably high level of build quality but to get it in the air while I?m still able to enjoy it for 10 or 20 years. That level, as many of you have pointed out, is a very personal decision that everyone has to make many times during the build. As this is my first build, I?ll not likely be hanging any ?Judge Me Please? signs on my prop at Oshkosh, but I do hope to take my family and friends flying and bring them back safely. It?ll look pretty nice too.

So having bored you with the above, having read all the posts, I have to say that I was still leaning toward leaving it. I?d likely not ever really think about it I thought. But then Gil?s page 3 post really made sense.

The ?reason? for bundling is to keep individual wires from vibrating and failing. Now THAT is sound reason that makes sense. Thank you very much Gil!

I can live with hidden ugly but not having wires fail. Stopping them from vibrating is a very different motivation than aesthetics, and can be far less work. That, makes sense.
I think I?ll try twisting the bundle up nice and tight and wrapping a couple of zip ties around it. If that doesn?t work out, I?ll bundle them up in smaller groups. It?ll still be fugly, but it?ll not vibrate. :D
 
Yep...

Snip three tyraps and form the bunch into three seperate bundles - re-tyrap or lacing cord the three new bundles....

Concur with the above and make sure the extra length is not rubbing against components/metal. Vibration and chafing does not produce nice results with electrical wires; main reasons to bundle up.

My 2 cents
 

Nothin a handfull of wirenuts wont fix......:eek::eek:

Drives you crazy doesn't it?

But seriously, similar to what Gil has said, I would cut some ties and do some re-spacing. If that is no good, then I might look at the 4 longest wires and twist them into a single loop that somewhat matches the size of the rest of that "broad corner". Tie it in an open loop form. It might satisfy your cosmetic sense enough that you don't redo all the d-sub ends...:)
 
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I will vote for pulling some of the slak up into the harness to fair out the bundle around the radius.

Three reasons come to mind:
1) At some point you will need to be looking around this area with a mirror and flashlight and the fan of cables will impede your line of sight as well as access to anything else in this area.
2) Having spent some time in a dynamics lab around things that went fast and turned hard, were being designed. Any cable that was not supported and was left out to flex under vibration is asking for reliability issues.
3) Think about the perceived quality and workmanship that this may present when/if you need/want to sell the aircraft at some point in the future.

Take a few minutes and pull some of the excess up into the harness. You will be surprised how little cable there actually is in those loops once you spread them out.
 
dont forget to put a note on there that says.............

if you find this and are buying the plane, the rest of the plane is perfect. :)

promosj.png
 
I would re-terminate the connectors and make it right. The fact that you have posted this tells me that it bothers you. How many time do you get to build you own airplane? It sounds like a one day at most set back.
 
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