I have not posted much lately, but I’ve still been quite busy – just not anything that I can put together into post. Taking care of the million little tasks left, finding little problems/mistakes and fixing them et cetera. I have started the engine and, while there are still a few issues, its running. I’m having some issues with the ignition – mainly the Lightspeed EI. The ignition seems to work fine, but I’m not getting an RPM reading from it and the disable switch does not seem to work – only when I turn off power to the EI unit does it stop.
After fiddling with the throttle/mixture linkages to get them to access the full range and dialing in the idle mixture/speed, I taxied around a little. I found it a bit different that taxing a C172 or Cherokee. I didn’t do any high-speed taxiing, just a loop around the ramp, but it was all brakes to steer – no rudder steering. I’m guessing because the rudders see no prop wash, only down the runway will rudder steering be effective.
I had a number of little issues with a few of the engine sensors to fix, nothing serious, tho. The only real issues I’m having now is that the engine will not rev up past ~2000RPM, and the fuel pressure is reading 0-3psi (only 3psi when the boost pump is enabled). It appears that the fuel pressure sensor is functioning properly. I initially had the sensor plumbed into the engine-mounted fuel pump port, then I replaced it to the fuel distributor spider, but in both locations I only read this negligible pressure reading. I’m thinking I’ll put it on the fuel servo pressure monitor port next weekend and try it. I have a feeling that this low pressure is real, though, and this is why I can’t get any more than 2000RPM out of it. Restriction in the fuel pump?
Anyway, here’s a video of starting up the engine and taxiing around a bit…