Dino Saga 050925

Dino Saga 050925

In prior posts I talked about electrical problems. Early on I had to clean up a home made electrical junction plate on the firewall. Alternator field and output went to an inline fuse and a circuit breaker respectively. Breaker had been cracked and was hanging by a single screw. This area was a problem just waiting to happen.

I have never seen what was supposed to go in that area or what kind of termination was original for the alternator wires. Both wires go right by the exhaust headers and could easily be jiggled, melted, shorted and cause major grief. Any time you have to work in that area you want to be able to disconnect everything; easily and safely. Short the red wire to ground and you melt the harness, short the black to ground and you fry the regulator. Not good.

Took things one at a time. Got a 50 Amp fusible link for the alternator output and a 2 Amp fuse for the field. Used a Radio Shack 4 glass fuse, screw terminal block as a base. Removed all terminals from top (1) and bottom stations. Removed spring clips only from station 2 and added a mounting hole in the center of station 1. Used the screw terminals to hold the link and male push-on terminals. Installed fuse in station 3. Mounted block with a screw and some silicone. Put a ground lug under the screw and added a capacitor from alternator output to ground. Cap helps the AM radio reception. Push-on terminals are easy to work with and handle the current. Used a ring lug on red battery wire just for insurance. Wires to alternator are about 18” long and can be left on the alternator when the inevitable brush change is required. Ty Wrap wires to the water line so they stay away from exhaust header. First pic shows the details.

Last week I talked about the air filter. The second picture shows my replacement for the stock air duct from filter to carb air box. Old duct was full of holes and squashed. Did not seem reasonable to replace it with a stock part when aircraft quality silicone ducting is so readily available at a reasonable price. It is wire reinforced and happy at high temps. Also much smoother inside and bends real easy. It is available in ¼” diameter increments and costs about $1 an inch for 4 ½” duct. That size matched the air filter outlet perfectly. I bought $12 worth at my local airport FBO and was in business. It is also available from McMaster-Carr, etc. Speaking of McMaster-Carr, There is not a better web site for industrial supplies. Wish others would copy exactly. Go look one day.

I did have to rework the oval inlet to the air box so the duct would fit. Reduced the circumference of the inlet about 1/8” and all was well. Cut-off disk in the moto-tool made the job trivial. Take care to take tension out of the last turn of wire in the duct. It wants to get out. A dab of red silicone keeps the wire end in place after you have relieved the stress. Stainless clamps keep everything together.

It’s a Ferrari; has to have some red somewhere. Right?

John
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