Rudder Light Wiring Route?

[jsharkey]

How have others routed the tail light and strobe wires to the end of the lower rudder fairing?

In particular how high on the rudder/rear fuselage bulkhead did you pass the cables? If it's low enough to be in line with the fairing then it has to go through the tail spring steel bracket. Higher up and it could pass down through the D-nose of the rudder and under the rudder horn bracket into the fairing.

Also how did you account for the swing or motion of the rudder on the cables? Where did you route the "slack"? Or did you cut a horizontal slot in the nose of the rudder to allow it to move over a more or less fixed cable?

And - where did you break the cables? At the lights or somewhere near the hinge line?

Any pictures would be much appreciated.

Jim Sharkey
RV6 Tip-up O360-A1A FP
Getting ready to take to the airport!

 

[rjcthree]

PLEASE somebody help Jim out . . .

. . . 'cause I'm waiting on the answer too!

Rick 90432 working canopy frame.

 

[Jeff Vaughan]

Email me and Iw ill send photos

 

[Bob Hoffman]

Jeff,
Please POST photo's so we all can learn.
I too want to know how.
Thanks
Bob

 

[jsharkey]

Here is what I did in the end.

I trimmed lots from the nose of the fairing so that I can get it past the rudder horn and remove it without dismantling the rudder or tail spring. I also added a cable notch to the big cable "rudder swing" slot so that the fairing can slip off over the tail light/strobe cables. These are secured to the base of the rudder horn with an Adel clamp which would otherwise be inaccessible.

The cables pass thru a snap bushing in the aft F612 bulkhead positioned roughly at the centroid of the three 1/4" tail spring bracket bolts. The material stack up here is about the same thickness as the length of the bushing. The bushing and cables are potted with RTV to help secure them and prevent chaffing - ugly but effective.

The bushing (-4 I believe) has an inner lip that I removed with a 5/16 unibit. This allows the strobe cable and a couple of 18AWG wires (+12V and GRD for the tail light) to pass easily but snugly. I heat shrink sleeved the cables.

Jim Sharkey
RV6 Tip-Up
Details Details Details

 

[n2prise]

Strobe and Tail Light wire locations

When I built my RV-9A, I used the space between the lower hinge brackets as my exit point for the strobe cable and the tail light wires. Look closely in the photo and you can see the gray strobe cable and both tail light wires. The cable and the tail light wires later got a sprial wrap around them to protect them from chafing with rudder movement.

The exit hole in the aft bulkhead is adjacent to the rod-end bearing when the rudder is attached. The gray strobe cable is barely visible in this photo due to the poor lighting from my camera flash. The crimp ring was grounded later under one of the bolts seen here. I kept the strobe cable separated from the low-voltage tail light wires all the way back in the fuselage until they exit to the rudder at this point.

The cable bends down after it clears the steel angles that secure the rod-end bearing from the rudder. It flexes in the vertical axis as it dives down toward the bottom of the lower rudder cap. I did not cut away any additional fiberglass from the lower cap.

The plugs for the tail light assembly are in the lower rudder cap which is held on to the rudder with #4 flat head screws and nut plates.