Minor panel tweak

[Rich]

This week I removed the compass that was mounted on the glare shield and replaced it with an in-panel compass. Why do this? A bunch of little things:

- Correct the issue of the compass light constantly becoming inoperative because of power leads pulling out of the connector between the stationary section of the cable and the portion that has to move with the canopy
- Removes an (admittedly minor) visual obstruction above the glare shield
- Removes an obstruction when cleaning the inside of the canopy.
- Moves the compass out of direct sunlight (I've had the bladder fail).
- Aesthetically cleaner
- That empty instrument mount has been staring at me for 15 years. Now it has a function

Now I just need to figure out how to deal with the floodlight (which is inop because it has a power lead pulled out )

[Pascal]

Neat!

[Rich]

So the next step was to get my floodlight working again. The problem has been the 2-pole connector that dangles off the bottom of the right-side canopy support and connects to the feed from the inverter for the floodlight. What's happened with some regularity is the conductor(s) breaking off at or pulling out from the pins in the connectors. (This also would happen with the compass light power feed, now moot.) A predictable result of the constant flexing of the cable as the canopy is opened or closed.

The first challenge was to get the (in this case) pulled-out conductor on the canopy side re-crimped into a new pin. Easy, right, except this is absurdly light gauge wire. number 22 at best, but a couple of strands were broken off. So I stripped a bit more (a surgical operation in itself) and folded it back over to add to the effective thickness. I got it crimped, ok, and everything reconnected, but the wires are so light gauge as I manipulated this stuff for the next step I just knew I would break off one of the 4 wires at a pin connection. It feels to me like trying to manage strands of a spiderweb

Next obstacle: Since the installation of the KT74 there is maybe 3/16" clearance between the canopy arm and the transponder, so I have to ensure the connector doesn't have any chance of dangling down into that space. That worked out OK by making the 2 cables and connector form a collapsed "Z", held together with a zip-tie, on the inboard side of the canopy arm. This also means any flexing happens, not at the weak points of the crimps, but well out on the cable.

But then I also had to make sure that there was no possibility the joint of the connection wouldn't have any way of hanging up on a bracket or cable that sits lurking on that area. So another zip-tie to the canopy assembly out of reach of the groping transponder

So it all works for now. A silly amount of work and finagling for a single stupid wire Only time will tell if it will keep working.