Wow! This A&P flies all the way from Michigan to work on the 401. Just goes to show how much Jason’s subscribers are motivated to see the 401 finished.
Yeah I live way down in New Zealand I wished I could come and help out in person but my distance prevents .But if I could come I would.Who knows perhaps when I retire in another 7 years approx that I & my wife could come & see it in person .But for now these YT videos will have to do.Good job Jason & your great helpers!
Will the airport now ban Dan and issue him a trespass for helping you in your own hanger like they did to Greg? I cant believe they can stop you from working on your own plane with your own help inside your own hanger. Working on your own plane with your own help is the entire reason to have a hanger like this. That is like not allowing you to pay a friend to fix your car inside your own garage.
Avionics guy here, I wish I can help you guys out. You should have run a guide string when you pulled the old harness out. That same string you can pull in your new harness or serviceable harness so you won’t miss any wiring access path along the wing. Good job guys and keep it up
I'm an auto mechanic, and I'm really surprised that there is actually more extensive wiring for just the external rear lighting in modern vehicles which have become way over complicated causing more failures along with excessive cost for repairs. It's kinda nice to see that they had the foresight to keep those systems simple and efficient.
As you have shown, the cream always rises to the top. What you have is not just a project, it is a mission. You are doing a wonderful job and should be commended for it. All the best to you.
"a wonderful job" Along with myself and alot of other experienced professionals don't think so. They're using 55-year-old wiring and calling it "everything brand new" I find it a bit pretentious for what is actually being accomplished here, or should I say not being accomplished, as in quality work up to the most basic standards in general aviation (GA).
Not so many people are in love with this project now that they're finding out that Jason is using 55-year-old wiring in his project that he claims to be "all new" what a joke! 😡
I knew it,I knew it,I knew it.i believed in you guys and you came through with another video.Jason,you are amazing.the offer to sweep floors is still there.❤❤❤❤❤
It's always.nice to get the projects you been really worried about, Done.😮 It's such a relief!! I remember you all pulling tons of wire out of this plane. You said, back then, that the new equipment wont need all the wiring it had & the 401 will be lighter weight! Good for you getting over another hurdle. ❤
Well, I'll tell ya, what a bunch of dedicated guys! I have never had any interest in airplanes at all, other than watching them fly that is. I am a retired Canadian Navy Marine Engineer so I know how important attention to detail is and that is what I am constantly seeing with you guys. Every step is checked and re-checked. I have no problem in saying this project will have a positive outcome. Looking forward to seeing it completed! Keep it up guys! Thumbs up from Halifax Nova Scotia Canada!!!!
Using 55-year-old wiring is not moving forward at all my friend This is a disaster in the making Look at all the negative comments from people that know what they're talking about with regards to using all that old questionable material.
Thinking back a couple years ago when you finally got the engines started and got that plane to taxi down the runway, I never thought I'd have donated money, or that I'd be here 2 years later still following this story the way I am. I can't wait to see the final product and to see this plane fly finally. It's going to be amazing.
It is really cool seeing this plane getting back better than ever. I mean we now know it never was free but you guys having fun is the most important part ;)
It's good practice to cap those exposed lines and wiring harnesses before cutting and grinding. Just my 2 cents😊. Love the channel guys, keep up the good work.
Great work guy 👊🏽 I used to be an car electronic specialist. When I needed to change wires, I used the old ones to pull the wires through. It saves a lot of time.
I have seen all the videos on the 401 and I have to say, that looks like the most challenging in terms of parts and just getting wires through tricky spaces and working blind. Great effort and great to see.
Finally, a 401 video, hey Jason, i love the channel. been here since the begining ive seen all your videos. Love what you all are doing but this morning made my day seeing another 401 video.. thanks
Yoot, yoot.... you guys are doing great work. Great to see more folks getting involved, again..... It seems to me we are seeing less ads, are you not getting as much "outside" support or are we just seeing it in other ways? Lots of hard work! Thanks for sharing. Bob
Great to see the 401 getting the attention it deserves! Glad to see the project moving again. CAN NOT WAIT to see it fly, might drive there for the event. 👍
Great to see work on the 401. JASON, we’ve been through your leg injury, your arm issue, so PLEASE put on safety glasses when you’re cutting slots in the screws with the dremel tool. Please and thank you.
Hahaha yeah... No more time off because Jason's got another injury... Though most of the time he injures himself out in the wild so maybe he needs to wear safety glasses just in general.
It’s awesome to see a good 401 pictures of episode. It’s been a while. thank you for showing it. I’m still very much a fan and I will always be.as we continue to see more. God bless you, Jason. I know you’re doing the best you can and thank God for Joe too and if I were an a&p ai I would really really be glad to work on it, for free but I’m not so anyways God bless.
Sure am glad to see you back working on the 301 Rescue. The way you talked in the last Video I thought sure The 401 was going to be scrapped. But evidently you left us with the wrong thoughts But I was thinking that would be a Shame to have to scrap the 401 with Sams name on it and after all the work all of you have put into it. But once again Im really really glad to see you back working on it. I want to see it fly again just for Sams sake if for no other reaso but of course there are other reasons too.
They're not rewiring anything, they're using 55-year-old questionable material and putting it into their "everything new" sham project. That's ridiculous to use that old crap.
Aircraft wiring is an item subject to very strict QA requirements during design of the cable loom, logical markings at specific distances, maximum bending radius, bulkhead feedtru etc. Airplanes per definition are subject to severe vibrations or bending moments of it’s wings. CHAFING becomes a major problem with time. The other areas of high failure rate are the splices, crimped contacts and connector pins or sockets becoming pushed back from their insulation block. Hopefully you will find enough of service loop length to install new terminals if required. Shielded and or coaxial cables have a tendency to absorb moisture, dielectric property may change when overheated specially when routed in tight curves. Your steel cables for the control surfaces will show or give a different feeling when frayed electrical wiring does not warn you when starting to fail. I love watching the team effort to restore the 401 in a like new condition.
Does anyone remember when the "plan" was to go to Oshkosh last year 😂 I have been enjoying this series since you found the plane with birds nests all up in it and Sam said you can have it if you can start it. I love what you guys do and I love the updates! I am READY to see this plane fly.
Looking at this process as a QA-consultant, this looks VERY HIGH RISK indeed! What you may wish to be salvageable, might end up being your epitaph. Don't 'polish a turd'. Use new, modern materials; Take your time, don't cut corners. This project never was economically viable anyway, so don't worry about the cost in $$$; Make sure this plane becomes 'better and safer than new. Keep up the good work!
As a QA lead, I tell you remember your basics: you need to cover the business requirements, make your test plan, and if it meets them you don't raise defects: Basically as long as jason inspects and verifies the wires are up to standard then there's no need to replace the whole thing.
Evan if every wire failed in flight on one wing the engine would more the likely keep running . A CB or two would pop ,its been inspected more thoroughly then if the plane hasn't been out of service and flowen one a week the is no requirement to pull out the wiring for inspected so it's 100% better then if left alone.
Marine electrician here -- Unless the FAA discourages it, I'd run a megger on each of the wires to test the insulation resistance. In accordance with NATO standard (FAA may say otherwise, of course), any wiring that we remove and reinstall (or a fresh installation) has to have a minimum insulation resistance of 200 Megohms to ground in order to pass. Anything 'in situ' passes with 2 Megs to ground.
Caveat: Of course NEVER, EVER run a megger on anything that is hooked up to an end device, such as electronics. You can fry the devices and electronics with the voltages that the megger can put out. As to what voltage to set it to, if it is an AC conductor, the setting should be at the same voltage as the peak voltage the conductor will normally be carrying. For 110VAC, that's approximately 170VAC, and the closest megger voltage is usually 250V. In the case of VDC, the voltage is the nominal voltage of the conductor, usually lower voltages like 50 will work.
I am a retired Aviation Electronic tech. The worst problem I,ve seen in aircraft is bad wiring with multiple splices. I think these light wire covers are the best remedy. Protects all and new remedies for splicing wires is a must.
Too bad The bits going back on are over 55 years old, The wiring absolutely needs to be replaced That stuff is old and brittle and will cause nothing but problems for the next 25 years. Well it's not going to make it 25 years, more like 3 to 5 years if they're lucky.
Ron Tulsa. I have wired with aircraft grade wiring before, not on an aircraft. GE gas turbine LM6000 control systems are air derivate power plant generators. If I was with you helping out, I would have recommended to run all new wiring in the wings. Also, separate the wing from the aircraft so you had access to the cannon plug end. I would not trust the connectors (lugs) out in the wing, you will need to replace them all. It is possible that the wiring numbers are printed on the wires. However, printed heat shrink labels would make that an easy fix. I am sorry for your loss of Sam. He turned out to be a great friend for you and you crew. I believe that I would be considered a controls expert. I just retired from a major power utility after fifty years in this field. I started in 1973 in high school Votech, Industrial and Residential wiring. I served on an aircraft carrier as an electrician with the last two years on the flight deck. I designed and built testing systems for aircraft power 480 Volt 400 Cycle. I finished with the utility company as a Principal Designer for Transmision Protection and Control Substations.
A&P here working on the big birds. Give AC 23-27 a read. You may be able to have new harnesses fabricated to OEM spec by an aftermarket supplier since the Cessna parts are so hard to come by. EWIS is not to be taken lightly and a lot of those wires may fail a TDR / continuity / resistance check. I really would hate to see the Phoenix up in flames before shes even up in the air! Be safe out there, all the best to you and the crew.
Great info in AC 23-27. Before installing and after in stalling we did perform a continuity and a resistance check on each pin to termination of the wire. All checked out perfectly. Would have loved to do a whole new complete harness with each wire coded and re-pinned but after looking over the original harness and seeing its condition it wasn’t necessary as it’s in really nice condition.
A wiring tip from a network technician: When you know you need to re-run wires to replace what you're taking out, attach pull-string to the end of the old wire so once the old comes out, you only have to re-attach the new wire to the string and pull it back through. It will route the same way it came out and save a LOT of time in hard-to-reach places. For the ones that split around the control cables, when your wire/string combo reaches that point you just disconnect the two, move it to a better place, re-connect, and move on.
We used stainless wire as pull wires in various places to make the install smoother. All of those hours working on residential and commercial projects paid off.
I was just about to recommend the same thing until I saw your post. As an avionics technician we have to run through some near impossible routes to repair wires and this technique saves “ALOT” of frustration and time. Oh and works for car audio too!
Fantastic another big job completed. You guys need this boost. Thanks for the amount off effort from every body putting in.even through the rough times .God bless you all. Now pull your fingers out get on with it 🤣🤣🤣🤣 kindest regards guys.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Thank you Jason for doing another video about our cherish 401 "Phoenix" airplane. I'm also happy to see Gregg in part of the video especially after you allowed us to know some of the reasons in your previous video! I do hope that Gregg issues get sorted out quickly and he can come back! On another note, wouldn't it be better and safer to remake those wire harness rather that salvaging them from the old wings?
It’s been a journey. The 401 harnesses are in really good condition only needing a few small things. We considered having custom Rr manufactured harnesses made but that would take months and be difficult. Aviation harnesses are made from very good wiring and methods. The 1969 harness we installed although old will work perfectly for years and years.
Nice to see some action back on the 401... Why not put in a new pair of wire harness? These old wires from the 1960's may have brittle and electrically breakdown insulations ...
Are they still made or would it have to be completely custom? I suspect a new custom made harness would be extremely expensive and take a long time to get. I guess this is the cheaper/faster route? ETA: other have mentioned potential moisture ingress in the wire insulation. It's a good point and while new is always better, the conductors are *probably* fine. What could possibly go wrong? Jimmy? Lol
@@Krataios20I know. It was a joke. Although in all seriousness, when was the last time you heard about a failure due to moisture ingress where the insulating jacket is not broken? It's one thing if the jacket is all busted up but another if it's all intact. Especially on these longer, horizontal runs.
The factory 401 harness were in excellent condition and also are numbered on each wire by the manufacturer…. Keeping the original harness will make servicing the 401 in the future much safer and easier as the harnesses are completely Cessna spec built. When we called Cessna about a year ago about new wing harnesses they weren’t available.
I'm glad you folks used a wire to help guide the harness back in place. I was going to suggest using fish tape, similar to pulling wires through conduits in buildings.
I'm sorry but that's absolutely not true. To build a new one you would need to get FAA approval to do that. You don't need to get FAA approval to rebuild an existing aircraft. In addition it would be horrendously expensive to retool for a new build, and that's a fact.
If the jacket on the wiring is broken and you introduce any kind of cleaning agent, (which probably has a water base to it), capillar action will draw that solution up the jacket. It's even worse with stranded cable. So while you think you're cleaning it, you're actually creating spots of future corrosion and increased resistance.
That's exalent That it went fairly smoothly even with little repairs and a screw removed your ready to finish the motor excesorys and wiring your loving ❤️ it now
Just saw the news that a Cessna 421C went down today with three fatalities. This is just a reminder to stay focused and safe. It sounds as though today's crash may have been post repair or update related. RIP to those lost.
Avionics shops routinely make harnesses, including printing numbers regularly along the length of each wire, to match the cessna schematics. So, you're not stuck with the old one just to keep those codes. Yes, troubleshooting is a pain with the large bundles of all white wires. With so many wires, though, there aren't enough colors to color code them. I work on cars and motorcycles, too, and remembering a bunch of colors is harder for me than a bunch of numbers. Most of that insulation might be "tefzel", too. I have only seen it in white..maybe that is the only way it can be made. It is a flouropolymer, most car wire insulation that is colored is plasticized PVC. Tefzel is much more inert, long lasting. Both make very poisonous gases when burned, but tefzel withstands higher temperatures. Saying "the engines will keep running if that harness fails" ( one other comment here ) is not comforting...electrical fires happen, the CB's don't always protect you. Check out the Citation 10 that just was very lucky to crash land and burn up! New airplane with an electrical fire. You do NOT want to mess with fire in an airplane. From cruising altitude in this, exiting the aircraft on the ground is probably dozens of minutes away, or possibly much longer in IMC. The fire doesn't have to burn you to kill you- taking away your navigation or ability to see instruments or outside will kill you just fine.
I used to work on hydraulic jennys for naval aircraft. We disassembled them completely them completely to rebuild them from the ground up. The wiring harnesses were always dripping with hydraulic fluid. I filled a deep sink with hot water, added about half a bottle of Dawn, and let it soak (stirring ocasionally) for a day. the rinsed it well and hung it up to dry. Much easier than scrubbing with a brush and it works every time.
Nice to see progress with plane i have been following all the way from the first video good job i'm following from Greenland looking forward to it being finished, Best Regarding, Hans H.
It's a horrible job, they're reusing 55-year-old wiring That's despicable when those wings sat there for 4 months and nothing was getting done They should have been rewiring with new stuff, quality stuff not that junk.
This is a great Saturday for many thousands of subscribers who are invested in the completion of the 401 project! Hope the new addition to the team stays as long as possible. This plane will fly!
Just did a wire harness swap on engine fire supra. What a mess. It took me alot longer than i was expecting. Couldn't imagine trying to do a whole airplane. Good work guys gives me motivation to make next project a 172
Did the legit A&P approve those wires and how they were repaired? Shouldn't they be fine then? Thanks for the video and another "chalk talk" on the 401 would be interesting to see what's needed.
Both copper and the plastic jackets have fatigue factors and work hardening/brittle factors. I just hope that these wires aren't going to be constant problems.
Hey Jason, I ran across a great cleaner for wires and electronics - WD 40 Specialist ! May be a good choice for cleaning your wire sheaths. Enjoying your episode with new AP Specialist. Say hi to Joe for me. Long Live Sam 401 ~
So awesome to see you guys back at the 401 even though we know you didn't stop, ☺️ keep up the great work and thanks for all the help with my request 🙏
There was the weekend of september8, so rush to my favorite you-Tube to see the new status of the 401 project. Wonder what has happened, not even any words on a new golf-cart rebuild rescue.
Good deal guys! Looks like your wing is healing up Jason. There are a lot of people asking why you didn't make new harnesses. If you could even find all the original termnals needed to re-pin the terminations, it's a lot of work. I am 100% sure it would have been possible, but you would still be doing this a month and a half later after a thousand hours. One thing I would have considered would have been to upgrade the wiring to the starters and alternators. It seems like that would have been a worthy upgrade.
Yeah a lot of people (including the FAA) are asking why you're putting old material back in a refurbished aircraft. In my view they had a bunch of downtime to start fabricating new harnesses and wire runs using the WD in the maintenance manuals and the old harnesses as guidance. I would have reached out to the sub of the local EAA types, some of their fabrication processes are as good if not better than anything coming from the factory, especially a factory in Wichita Kansas back in the late '60s lol
An interesting point. They could have indeed pulled the harnesses from the wings way back when they were still doing the major bird crud removal phase and sent them out to be remade. The connectors required are still available, at least for the most part. The major connectors, the big circular ones for instance are still available from the OEMs such as AMP. The only thing I can say is that this project has been slowly going from a quick, suck the bird junk out, get the engines running and the air frame inspected to yield a flying airplane to the most complete rebuild in modern history. The 401 will when done be that plane. So yes, they should have pulled the harnesses months ago, sent them out and had new ones built up. But then, they should have pulled the harnesses from the wings before the wings were installed on the plane, that would have been much easier. There have been quite a few order of operation errors on this project. So having said that, I doubt that I would have done any better. Well perhaps, I do have a tendency to take things to absolutely bits, with every nut bolt and bit of duct tape removed, so perhaps I would have done the harnesses. But again, the scope of this project has changed a few times in the process. Jason and company are doing an honest job and have been willing to share even their errors, something that is refreshing in the UA-cam over slick we never make a mistake world.
What you are suggesting is a lot more complicated than you think. The old Cessna wiring diagrams are general in nature and not reliable for re-wiring the aircraft, You would first need an electrical engineer to essentially reverse-engineer the entire system in diagram form. That process alone could take more than a year before you could even start replacing wires. All wires would need to re-sized based on current design standards because the old Cessna diagrams don't generally specify wire sizes. It is possible? Yes. But the cost and extension of the completion schedule would be another year or more, assuming you could find someone who even wanted to do it, which I doubt.
@@gawebm Well you certainly don't need an engineer because you're not engineering anything. All you're doing is replacing like for like and you already have acceptable data reference the WD's produced by Cessna when the aircraft was originally manufactured. I've worked off of these WD documents for years replacing wiring harnesses for a flight school in Texas I didn't need no stinking engineer. You don't even need an a&p mechanic to fabricate harnesses I'm sure you can find a retired technician or in the local EAA chapter that can help out but the problem is the project has sat for months and nothing was done and now they want to get everything done as quickly as possible and that is just not the way you do wiring. I believe FAA document AC4313 will give you just about all the guidance you need with regards to wiring and wire installation and I've seen some home built projects that look 10x better than whatever Cessna put out in the late '60s and '70s. It's just discouraging that they're finding all these defects in the wiring now when this should have been addressed months ago.
damn, I love this channel. Just so cool to see what all goes in to the design and maintenance for all these machines to function. And good to see some 401 action.
Just heard of N421GP that went down. it was sitting for a while. Dont know what went wrong, but you guys, just be careful. Take a moment. You know already but, its really easy to cut a corner, then two, then a plane goes down. This is coming from an old crew chief. Luckily, I never lost an aircraft. That is the goal I suppse, that all the planes we touch should live long enough to go to the scrap yard or become static models.
Glad to see you guys are still working on it. The Phoenix seems to have turned into an intensely vested project; can't wait to see you guys hit the finish line!!! Question from a non aviation person; how much would it have cost to buy a new harness?
By the time you guys are done, this 401 will be the most perfect, most expensive free airplane in the USA. Hopefully one day you get to fly in it and use it for your charity!
Like many, really glad to see a 401 video, but just as cool is having an A&P come over to help. This is how this project will succeed, people chipping in either with money, time, or support in watching. Come on Jason you 401 drug pusher, us addicts want More 401 Please!
Tom!, what a great idea . Start looking get it patented then approach a manufacturer. If you reduce the size of the green pipe , the pressure further along the pipe, which you will need if you put either holes along it or split with a T pipe . You have great quality of stuff in your scrap heap 🤣👍👏👏👏
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Wow! This A&P flies all the way from Michigan to work on the 401. Just goes to show how much Jason’s subscribers are motivated to see the 401 finished.
All the support keeps us going and we aren't giving up! It was awesome having Dan come and help us out
Yeah I live way down in New Zealand I wished I could come and help out in person but my distance prevents .But if I could come I would.Who knows perhaps when I retire in another 7 years approx that I & my wife could come & see it in person .But for now these YT videos will have to do.Good job Jason & your great helpers!
Will the airport now ban Dan and issue him a trespass for helping you in your own hanger like they did to Greg? I cant believe they can stop you from working on your own plane with your own help inside your own hanger. Working on your own plane with your own help is the entire reason to have a hanger like this. That is like not allowing you to pay a friend to fix your car inside your own garage.
@common_c3nts Greg had contracts at airport work. Did not want any connections.
So glad to see the 401 back in action!
Great to be back !
Avionics guy here, I wish I can help you guys out. You should have run a guide string when you pulled the old harness out. That same string you can pull in your new harness or serviceable harness so you won’t miss any wiring access path along the wing. Good job guys and keep it up
I'm an auto mechanic, and I'm really surprised that there is actually more extensive wiring for just the external rear lighting in modern vehicles which have become way over complicated causing more failures along with excessive cost for repairs. It's kinda nice to see that they had the foresight to keep those systems simple and efficient.
As you have shown, the cream always rises to the top. What you have is not just a project, it is a mission. You are doing a wonderful job and should be commended for it. All the best to you.
Thank you Robert, we wouldn't be here without the support from you guys !
"a wonderful job" Along with myself and alot of other experienced professionals don't think so.
They're using 55-year-old wiring and calling it "everything brand new" I find it a bit pretentious for what is actually being accomplished here, or should I say not being accomplished, as in quality work up to the most basic standards in general aviation (GA).
Always negative folks....smh...what are YOU doing to help with a project like this?
So good to see people chipping in and coming over from everywhere to help out! Just shows the level of love for this project ❤🎉
Not so many people are in love with this project now that they're finding out that Jason is using 55-year-old wiring in his project that he claims to be "all new" what a joke! 😡
I can't believe he finally used the right verb "run" and not "ran"!! Love it!!!! Nice to see movement on the 401.
Just for you Brother 👍🏼
Just a side note I will say it and a hundred other things wrong in the future though 🤷🏻♂️😂
Also one day hopefully Jason will form proper sentences too! "this needs to be repaired" not "this repaired" simple stuff!
Using the wrong verbs and not constructing full sentences are the very least of "his" problems, one would think! He has the 401.
Some of it is dialect. Talk to an old farmer from Devon, Derbyshire or Staffordshire and you’ll struggle to understand.
@@ThermoCoupleNZ I doubt highly will ever happen that!🤣
I knew it,I knew it,I knew it.i believed in you guys and you came through with another video.Jason,you are amazing.the offer to sweep floors is still there.❤❤❤❤❤
Wiring, not fun. But one of the most critical part of the process. Hats off to ya'll for tackling it.
It's always.nice to get the projects you been really worried about, Done.😮 It's such a relief!! I remember you all pulling tons of wire out of this plane. You said, back then, that the new equipment wont need all the wiring it had & the 401 will be lighter weight! Good for you getting over another hurdle. ❤
One more thing checked off of the list !
100 or so to go !
Well, I'll tell ya, what a bunch of dedicated guys! I have never had any interest in airplanes at all, other than watching them fly that is. I am a retired Canadian Navy Marine Engineer so I know how important attention to detail is and that is what I am constantly seeing with you guys. Every step is checked and re-checked. I have no problem in saying this project will have a positive outcome. Looking forward to seeing it completed! Keep it up guys! Thumbs up from Halifax Nova Scotia Canada!!!!
Your positivity means a lot to us, and we appreciate the time you spend with us here on the channel Terry. Thank you
I used to work in engineering my regular thoughts are “why the ** did Cessna built it like that”. The “correct” setup often looks so questionable.
Really seriously all these episodes and that thing never flew.
Awesome Jason! Thank you Dan! Things are moving forward! That looked like a TON of work!
Definitely left the hangar that week with lots of bandaids on our hands 👍🏼🤣
Using 55-year-old wiring is not moving forward at all my friend This is a disaster in the making Look at all the negative comments from people that know what they're talking about with regards to using all that old questionable material.
Thinking back a couple years ago when you finally got the engines started and got that plane to taxi down the runway, I never thought I'd have donated money, or that I'd be here 2 years later still following this story the way I am. I can't wait to see the final product and to see this plane fly finally. It's going to be amazing.
It is really cool seeing this plane getting back better than ever. I mean we now know it never was free but you guys having fun is the most important part ;)
I think twice now when I here FREE 😂🤣
It's good practice to cap those exposed lines and wiring harnesses before cutting and grinding. Just my 2 cents😊. Love the channel guys, keep up the good work.
Great work guy 👊🏽 I used to be an car electronic specialist. When I needed to change wires, I used the old ones to pull the wires through. It saves a lot of time.
Hell yeah! Glad to see the 401 project has not been abandoned!!
I have seen all the videos on the 401 and I have to say, that looks like the most challenging in terms of parts and just getting wires through tricky spaces and working blind. Great effort and great to see.
Finally, a 401 video, hey Jason, i love the channel. been here since the begining ive seen all your videos. Love what you all are doing but this morning made my day seeing another 401 video.. thanks
Thank you for being here with us Brother. Means a lot to us all.
Yoot, yoot.... you guys are doing great work. Great to see more folks getting involved, again..... It seems to me we are seeing less ads, are you not getting as much "outside" support or are we just seeing it in other ways? Lots of hard work! Thanks for sharing.
Bob
Great to see the 401 getting the attention it deserves! Glad to see the project moving again. CAN NOT WAIT to see it fly, might drive there for the event. 👍
Great to see work on the 401. JASON, we’ve been through your leg injury, your arm issue, so PLEASE put on safety glasses when you’re cutting slots in the screws with the dremel tool. Please and thank you.
Hahaha yeah... No more time off because Jason's got another injury... Though most of the time he injures himself out in the wild so maybe he needs to wear safety glasses just in general.
It's really great to see you guys not giving up! I hope that all current affairs, including Greg's issue, will work out well!
We appreciate all the support Brother, thank you
It’s awesome to see a good 401 pictures of episode. It’s been a while. thank you for showing it. I’m still very much a fan and I will always be.as we continue to see more. God bless you, Jason. I know you’re doing the best you can and thank God for Joe too and if I were an a&p ai I would really really be glad to work on it, for free but I’m not so anyways God bless.
Sure am glad to see you back working on the 301 Rescue. The way you talked in the last Video I thought sure The 401 was going to be scrapped. But evidently you left us with the wrong thoughts But I was thinking that would be a Shame to have to scrap the 401 with Sams name on it and after all the work all of you have put into it. But once again Im really really glad to see you back working on it. I want to see it fly again just for Sams sake if for no other reaso but of course there are other reasons too.
Never give up. Never.
The tedious process of rewiring is getting completed. Another step in returning the 401 to the skies. Good job Jason, Dan, Joe and all the crew.
They're not rewiring anything, they're using 55-year-old questionable material and putting it into their "everything new" sham project. That's ridiculous to use that old crap.
I was dreading the wiring harnesses, I'm glad it went as smoothly as it did.
Aircraft wiring is an item subject to very strict QA requirements during design of the cable loom, logical markings at specific distances, maximum bending radius, bulkhead feedtru etc. Airplanes per definition are subject to severe vibrations or bending moments of it’s wings. CHAFING becomes a major problem with time. The other areas of high failure rate are the splices, crimped contacts and connector pins or sockets becoming pushed back from their insulation block. Hopefully you will find enough of service loop length to install new terminals if required. Shielded and or coaxial cables have a tendency to absorb moisture, dielectric property may change when overheated specially when routed in tight curves. Your steel cables for the control surfaces will show or give a different feeling when frayed electrical wiring does not warn you when starting to fail. I love watching the team effort to restore the 401 in a like new condition.
Great information ! The harness was in really good condition surprisingly. Cessna did an amazing job back in 1969.
Does anyone remember when the "plan" was to go to Oshkosh last year 😂 I have been enjoying this series since you found the plane with birds nests all up in it and Sam said you can have it if you can start it. I love what you guys do and I love the updates! I am READY to see this plane fly.
shit man I'd be happy if they can get it up the year after next lmao.
Love to see the 401 being 1 step closer to flying again
Means the world to us all Brother !
Looking at this process as a QA-consultant, this looks VERY HIGH RISK indeed! What you may wish to be salvageable, might end up being your epitaph.
Don't 'polish a turd'. Use new, modern materials; Take your time, don't cut corners. This project never was economically viable anyway, so don't worry about the cost in $$$; Make sure this plane becomes 'better and safer than new. Keep up the good work!
Anything in aviation is high risk. Procedures absolutely have to be followed and redundant inspections performed per factory guidelines.
Agreed to a point. But also follow, if it’s not broken don’t fix it.
As a QA lead, I tell you remember your basics: you need to cover the business requirements, make your test plan, and if it meets them you don't raise defects:
Basically as long as jason inspects and verifies the wires are up to standard then there's no need to replace the whole thing.
Next time you pull a harness out attach some string to use as a draw to pull back the other way rather than all this coat hangar fishing 😂
Evan if every wire failed in flight on one wing the engine would more the likely keep running . A CB or two would pop ,its been inspected more thoroughly then if the plane hasn't been out of service and flowen one a week the is no requirement to pull out the wiring for inspected so it's 100% better then if left alone.
Marine electrician here -- Unless the FAA discourages it, I'd run a megger on each of the wires to test the insulation resistance. In accordance with NATO standard (FAA may say otherwise, of course), any wiring that we remove and reinstall (or a fresh installation) has to have a minimum insulation resistance of 200 Megohms to ground in order to pass. Anything 'in situ' passes with 2 Megs to ground.
Caveat: Of course NEVER, EVER run a megger on anything that is hooked up to an end device, such as electronics. You can fry the devices and electronics with the voltages that the megger can put out.
As to what voltage to set it to, if it is an AC conductor, the setting should be at the same voltage as the peak voltage the conductor will normally be carrying. For 110VAC, that's approximately 170VAC, and the closest megger voltage is usually 250V.
In the case of VDC, the voltage is the nominal voltage of the conductor, usually lower voltages like 50 will work.
I am a retired Aviation Electronic tech. The worst problem I,ve seen in aircraft is bad wiring with multiple splices. I think these light wire covers are the best remedy. Protects all and new remedies for splicing wires is a must.
If you got to the job , do it right the first time.
Thanks to the A&P Dan for helping. One would think that his certification suggests he is right that those wires are fine.
Always nice to see bits going back on.
Too bad The bits going back on are over 55 years old, The wiring absolutely needs to be replaced That stuff is old and brittle and will cause nothing but problems for the next 25 years. Well it's not going to make it 25 years, more like 3 to 5 years if they're lucky.
Awesome. Just awesome! What a crazy amount of work you guys are doing.. Really impressive indeed. Keep up the good work! Hat off from Finland!
Ron Tulsa. I have wired with aircraft grade wiring before, not on an aircraft. GE gas turbine LM6000 control systems are air derivate power plant generators. If I was with you helping out, I would have recommended to run all new wiring in the wings. Also, separate the wing from the aircraft so you had access to the cannon plug end. I would not trust the connectors (lugs) out in the wing, you will need to replace them all. It is possible that the wiring numbers are printed on the wires. However, printed heat shrink labels would make that an easy fix. I am sorry for your loss of Sam. He turned out to be a great friend for you and you crew.
I believe that I would be considered a controls expert. I just retired from a major power utility after fifty years in this field. I started in 1973 in high school Votech, Industrial and Residential wiring. I served on an aircraft carrier as an electrician with the last two years on the flight deck. I designed and built testing systems for aircraft power 480 Volt 400 Cycle. I finished with the utility company as a Principal Designer for Transmision Protection and Control Substations.
A&P here working on the big birds. Give AC 23-27 a read. You may be able to have new harnesses fabricated to OEM spec by an aftermarket supplier since the Cessna parts are so hard to come by. EWIS is not to be taken lightly and a lot of those wires may fail a TDR / continuity / resistance check. I really would hate to see the Phoenix up in flames before shes even up in the air!
Be safe out there, all the best to you and the crew.
Great info in AC 23-27. Before installing and after in stalling we did perform a continuity and a resistance check on each pin to termination of the wire. All checked out perfectly. Would have loved to do a whole new complete harness with each wire coded and re-pinned but after looking over the original harness and seeing its condition it wasn’t necessary as it’s in really nice condition.
I'm not a big fan of age on insulation.
I know it's not what people want to hear, but I'd replace it.
A wiring tip from a network technician: When you know you need to re-run wires to replace what you're taking out, attach pull-string to the end of the old wire so once the old comes out, you only have to re-attach the new wire to the string and pull it back through. It will route the same way it came out and save a LOT of time in hard-to-reach places. For the ones that split around the control cables, when your wire/string combo reaches that point you just disconnect the two, move it to a better place, re-connect, and move on.
Good advice 👍
We used stainless wire as pull wires in various places to make the install smoother. All of those hours working on residential and commercial projects paid off.
I was just about to recommend the same thing until I saw your post. As an avionics technician we have to run through some near impossible routes to repair wires and this technique saves “ALOT” of frustration and time. Oh and works for car audio too!
Love watching y'all working on the 401. Keep up the good work. Thanks 👍
Appreciate you Brother, thank you for watching !
Fantastic another big job completed. You guys need this boost. Thanks for the amount off effort from every body putting in.even through the rough times .God bless you all. Now pull your fingers out get on with it 🤣🤣🤣🤣 kindest regards guys.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Means so much to us. Thank you !
lets gooooo, 401 update, this literly made my day
Awesome to hear. Thank you for stopping by the channel
Big step off the board good to see more of the 401 project
Good job on a painstaking and sometimes painful job. Great to see the progress.
Thank you Jason for doing another video about our cherish 401 "Phoenix" airplane. I'm also happy to see Gregg in part of the video especially after you allowed us to know some of the reasons in your previous video! I do hope that Gregg issues get sorted out quickly and he can come back!
On another note, wouldn't it be better and safer to remake those wire harness rather that salvaging them from the old wings?
It’s been a journey.
The 401 harnesses are in really good condition only needing a few small things. We considered having custom Rr manufactured harnesses made but that would take months and be difficult. Aviation harnesses are made from very good wiring and methods. The 1969 harness we installed although old will work perfectly for years and years.
Nice to see some action back on the 401... Why not put in a new pair of wire harness? These old wires from the 1960's may have brittle and electrically breakdown insulations ...
Are they still made or would it have to be completely custom? I suspect a new custom made harness would be extremely expensive and take a long time to get. I guess this is the cheaper/faster route? ETA: other have mentioned potential moisture ingress in the wire insulation. It's a good point and while new is always better, the conductors are *probably* fine. What could possibly go wrong? Jimmy? Lol
@@Krataios20I know. It was a joke. Although in all seriousness, when was the last time you heard about a failure due to moisture ingress where the insulating jacket is not broken? It's one thing if the jacket is all busted up but another if it's all intact. Especially on these longer, horizontal runs.
You paying for new ones.
The factory 401 harness were in excellent condition and also are numbered on each wire by the manufacturer…. Keeping the original harness will make servicing the 401 in the future much safer and easier as the harnesses are completely Cessna spec built. When we called Cessna about a year ago about new wing harnesses they weren’t available.
Every time I see power tools sitting on primed skins 😱
Kudos guys, looking good.
Well done Jason and team, have watched every episode of the rescue, keep going. from the UK !!!
I'm glad you folks used a wire to help guide the harness back in place. I was going to suggest using fish tape, similar to pulling wires through conduits in buildings.
Joe is a total beauty of a mechanic and his hands are absolutely massive to prove it !!
Love what you are doing...but now we know why it's easier to build a new one... As to take one apart and replace it with new upgraded equipment...
I'm sorry but that's absolutely not true. To build a new one you would need to get FAA approval to do that. You don't need to get FAA approval to rebuild an existing aircraft. In addition it would be horrendously expensive to retool for a new build, and that's a fact.
Great work, guys ! Excellent to see that the 401 is progressing.
Awesome hearing from you. Thank you for stopping by and supporting 👍🏻
Thank you sir for so much involvement in this process, im a brazilian suscriber and willing to pay you a visit anyday
Excellent work guys....Best wishes...Always!
Thank you for watching and supporting David !
I really enjoy watching the 401 restoration process.
If the jacket on the wiring is broken and you introduce any kind of cleaning agent, (which probably has a water base to it), capillar action will draw that solution up the jacket. It's even worse with stranded cable. So while you think you're cleaning it, you're actually creating spots of future corrosion and increased resistance.
401 back in business 🎉 greetings from Norway.❤
Glad to see this project back up and running! Let's go guys! Best of luck! Form a fellow a and p 😊
Thank you Brother
That's exalent That it went fairly smoothly even with little repairs and a screw removed your ready to finish the motor excesorys and wiring your loving ❤️ it now
before installation of the harness you have to perform a high voltage isolation test of each wire from the harness
Just saw the news that a Cessna 421C went down today with three fatalities. This is just a reminder to stay focused and safe.
It sounds as though today's crash may have been post repair or update related. RIP to those lost.
Yes brother. Thanks for the video and update. Hope the arms on the mend. Here for the journey brother
Thank you !
You guys are unstoppable!
Another great 401 video. Thank you for this great video and your great hard work on this amazing project. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
We wouldn't be able to do it without all the support from you guys ! Thank you for believing in the 401
All praise to Mr.Joe,Mr.Dan and over the top you yourself
And we all miss late Mr .Sam's smiling face in his light blue t shirt
Respect from India
Thank God you're working on the 401, Hurrah. I love it!!
Avionics shops routinely make harnesses, including printing numbers regularly along the length of each wire, to match the cessna schematics. So, you're not stuck with the old one just to keep those codes. Yes, troubleshooting is a pain with the large bundles of all white wires.
With so many wires, though, there aren't enough colors to color code them. I work on cars and motorcycles, too, and remembering a bunch of colors is harder for me than a bunch of numbers.
Most of that insulation might be "tefzel", too. I have only seen it in white..maybe that is the only way it can be made. It is a flouropolymer, most car wire insulation that is colored is plasticized PVC. Tefzel is much more inert, long lasting. Both make very poisonous gases when burned, but tefzel withstands higher temperatures.
Saying "the engines will keep running if that harness fails" ( one other comment here ) is not comforting...electrical fires happen, the CB's don't always protect you.
Check out the Citation 10 that just was very lucky to crash land and burn up! New airplane with an electrical fire.
You do NOT want to mess with fire in an airplane. From cruising altitude in this, exiting the aircraft on the ground is probably dozens of minutes away, or possibly much longer in IMC.
The fire doesn't have to burn you to kill you- taking away your navigation or ability to see instruments or outside will kill you just fine.
I used to work on hydraulic jennys for naval aircraft. We disassembled them completely them completely to rebuild them from the ground up. The wiring harnesses were always dripping with hydraulic fluid. I filled a deep sink with hot water, added about half a bottle of Dawn, and let it soak (stirring ocasionally) for a day. the rinsed it well and hung it up to dry. Much easier than scrubbing with a brush and it works every time.
Nice to see progress with plane i have been following all the way from the first video good job i'm following from Greenland looking forward to it being finished, Best Regarding, Hans H.
Very grateful for this episode of the 401 thank you guys can’t wait to see it flying again 👍💝
We are excited to be back at it Jimmy! Thank you for watching
Great to see the 401 being worked on 😊🎉
Finally another episode from this HUGE project. Good job guys 😁.
It's a horrible job, they're reusing 55-year-old wiring That's despicable when those wings sat there for 4 months and nothing was getting done They should have been rewiring with new stuff, quality stuff not that junk.
This is a great Saturday for many thousands of subscribers who are invested in the completion of the 401 project! Hope the new addition to the team stays as long as possible.
This plane will fly!
Keepin the faith!! Love to see it Brother. Thank you
@@rebuildrescue I'm here for the long run, amigo.🙂
Just did a wire harness swap on engine fire supra. What a mess. It took me alot longer than i was expecting. Couldn't imagine trying to do a whole airplane. Good work guys gives me motivation to make next project a 172
The 401 and the free yacht are my two favorite things to watch you guys rescue
Did the legit A&P approve those wires and how they were repaired? Shouldn't they be fine then? Thanks for the video and another "chalk talk" on the 401 would be interesting to see what's needed.
Finally 401 back in action i hope this time you get it done completely ✌🏽🙏🏽
Both copper and the plastic jackets have fatigue factors and work hardening/brittle factors. I just hope that these wires aren't going to be constant problems.
Tedious stuff but peace of mind is invaluable.
Nice job guys, I know the amount of hours involved in car harnesses; it’s time consuming.. keep up the good work 👍
We wouldn't be able to do this without all you guys and the constant support. Thank you
Hey Jason, I ran across a great cleaner for wires and electronics - WD 40 Specialist ! May be a good choice for cleaning your wire sheaths. Enjoying your episode with new AP Specialist. Say hi to Joe for me. Long Live Sam 401 ~
Oh man this looks like fun . I love wiring.
Great and interesting to see. Every bit done on the 401 is one less bit.
Chipping away slowly but surely 👍🏻
@@rebuildrescue Out of interest do you guys handle all the avionics install with A&P or does a team come in and do the lot. Thanks in advance.
Like you said, big job! Nice work, and good to see the 401 project plugging away.
So awesome to see you guys back at the 401 even though we know you didn't stop, ☺️ keep up the great work and thanks for all the help with my request 🙏
There was the weekend of september8, so rush to my favorite you-Tube to see the new status of the 401 project. Wonder what has happened, not even any words on a new golf-cart rebuild rescue.
Yeah boys! Lot of love and dedication going into the 401! Looking forward to the next update, thanks so much!
🤙🛩️🌿🦘✨
Awesome to hear from you Brother, thank you !
If you have the harness out, seems like a better route would to build a new one?
Good deal guys! Looks like your wing is healing up Jason. There are a lot of people asking why you didn't make new harnesses. If you could even find all the original termnals needed to re-pin the terminations, it's a lot of work. I am 100% sure it would have been possible, but you would still be doing this a month and a half later after a thousand hours. One thing I would have considered would have been to upgrade the wiring to the starters and alternators. It seems like that would have been a worthy upgrade.
Yeah a lot of people (including the FAA) are asking why you're putting old material back in a refurbished aircraft.
In my view they had a bunch of downtime to start fabricating new harnesses and wire runs using the WD in the maintenance manuals and the old harnesses as guidance.
I would have reached out to the sub of the local EAA types, some of their fabrication processes are as good if not better than anything coming from the factory, especially a factory in Wichita Kansas back in the late '60s lol
An interesting point. They could have indeed pulled the harnesses from the wings way back when they were still doing the major bird crud removal phase and sent them out to be remade. The connectors required are still available, at least for the most part. The major connectors, the big circular ones for instance are still available from the OEMs such as AMP.
The only thing I can say is that this project has been slowly going from a quick, suck the bird junk out, get the engines running and the air frame inspected to yield a flying airplane to the most complete rebuild in modern history. The 401 will when done be that plane.
So yes, they should have pulled the harnesses months ago, sent them out and had new ones built up. But then, they should have pulled the harnesses from the wings before the wings were installed on the plane, that would have been much easier. There have been quite a few order of operation errors on this project.
So having said that, I doubt that I would have done any better. Well perhaps, I do have a tendency to take things to absolutely bits, with every nut bolt and bit of duct tape removed, so perhaps I would have done the harnesses. But again, the scope of this project has changed a few times in the process. Jason and company are doing an honest job and have been willing to share even their errors, something that is refreshing in the UA-cam over slick we never make a mistake world.
What you are suggesting is a lot more complicated than you think. The old Cessna wiring diagrams are general in nature and not reliable for re-wiring the aircraft, You would first need an electrical engineer to essentially reverse-engineer the entire system in diagram form. That process alone could take more than a year before you could even start replacing wires. All wires would need to re-sized based on current design standards because the old Cessna diagrams don't generally specify wire sizes. It is possible? Yes. But the cost and extension of the completion schedule would be another year or more, assuming you could find someone who even wanted to do it, which I doubt.
@@gawebm Well you certainly don't need an engineer because you're not engineering anything. All you're doing is replacing like for like and you already have acceptable data reference the WD's produced by Cessna when the aircraft was originally manufactured. I've worked off of these WD documents for years replacing wiring harnesses for a flight school in Texas I didn't need no stinking engineer. You don't even need an a&p mechanic to fabricate harnesses I'm sure you can find a retired technician or in the local EAA chapter that can help out but the problem is the project has sat for months and nothing was done and now they want to get everything done as quickly as possible and that is just not the way you do wiring.
I believe FAA document AC4313 will give you just about all the guidance you need with regards to wiring and wire installation and I've seen some home built projects that look 10x better than whatever Cessna put out in the late '60s and '70s. It's just discouraging that they're finding all these defects in the wiring now when this should have been addressed months ago.
@@christophergagliano2051Yeh surely a full wiring overhaul would be required by a wiring fabrication mob.
Looks like a great accomplishment. Congratulations! Keep up the good work! ✈️
Thank you Mark!!
damn, I love this channel. Just so cool to see what all goes in to the design and maintenance for all these machines to function. And good to see some 401 action.
Glad to see you on track again and hope every thing works out.
Thank you
Just heard of N421GP that went down. it was sitting for a while. Dont know what went wrong, but you guys, just be careful. Take a moment. You know already but, its really easy to cut a corner, then two, then a plane goes down.
This is coming from an old crew chief. Luckily, I never lost an aircraft. That is the goal I suppse, that all the planes we touch should live long enough to go to the scrap yard or become static models.
Glad to see you guys are still working on it. The Phoenix seems to have turned into an intensely vested project; can't wait to see you guys hit the finish line!!! Question from a non aviation person; how much would it have cost to buy a new harness?
By the time you guys are done, this 401 will be the most perfect, most expensive free airplane in the USA. Hopefully one day you get to fly in it and use it for your charity!
Big things coming ! Thank you for being apart of the adventure Brother
She's coming along and this is awesome to see!!
Another milestone superseded👍👍👏👏
Like many, really glad to see a 401 video, but just as cool is having an A&P come over to help. This is how this project will succeed, people chipping in either with money, time, or support in watching.
Come on Jason you 401 drug pusher, us addicts want More 401 Please!
Tom!, what a great idea . Start looking get it patented then approach a manufacturer. If you reduce the size of the green pipe , the pressure further along the pipe, which you will need if you put either holes along it or split with a T pipe . You have great quality of stuff in your scrap heap 🤣👍👏👏👏
Oh Jason!!! This is the first of the 401 videos that gave me ANXIETY! Spaghetti anxiety... yeah, that's it. God bless your patience.
It was nice to see the 401 again.