NetHeads, I'm very happy to announce that my newly installed VDO fuel level sending unit flange doesn't leak, at least not so far. I'll have to admit to some anxiety while filling with fuel though! It turned out to be pretty simple, but took some planning and care to make it work. First I made a 1/4" thick aluminum copy of the sending unit plate to serve as a mounting flange, and screwed five mounting studs into it. I used Derakane 411-350 vinyl ester from Aircraft Spruce strengthened with flox to fasten the flange to the outside of the inner skin of the tank (it's foam core). Unless it starts leaking soon, I'll have successfully converted a sight-glass fuel quantity system to something a little more modern, measured by the VDO 226-007 sending unit and also measured by the Floscan 201 fuel flow transducer, and displayed on the MGL Explorer. The readout should be fairly linear, as the MGL calibration process has you fill it a couple of gallons at a time while entering the corresponding number of gallons added into the Explorer.
I'll write this up on the website later, but for now I'm trying to concentrate on getting it airworthy for the trip to the KR Gathering in October. Another pleasant surprise is that the fuel capacity is almost exactly 16 gallons (not including expansion volume), which is even better than N56ML before adding the third tank. So range should be reasonable, although not quite enough to get to OSH on one tank. See enclosed image. One improvement to the sensor flange was a steel AN4 37 degree fitting, which I welded on since I took this picture. It will serve as a fuel return for fuel recirculation and pressure regulation, and can also be used to fill the tank from a wing tank that may be added later. Now adding fuel pumps, filter, primer, and totalizer. No worries...it will still be lighter than when I started! Now back to work... Mark Langford ML at N56ML.com website at http://www.N56ML.com -------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 130810_339m.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 71882 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://list.krnet.org/mailman/private/krnet_list.krnet.org/attachments/20130810/f69202d0/attachment.jpg>
