Tail nav/strobe installation

[JimB]

I am installing Whelen 650 nav/strobes on my F. The wings were pretty straightforward but I'm wondering about routing the wires for the tail. For those that may have installed these or had them installed, did you have to remove the rudder to route the strobe/sync wires? Or can you move the nose wheel/rudder off to one side to get enough access? I took a quick look today and ran out of time but it didn't look like it was going to be easy. 

Thanks,

Jim

[Niko182]

20 minutes ago, JimB said:

I am installing Whelen 650 nav/strobes on my F. The wings were pretty straightforward but I'm wondering about routing the wires for the tail. For those that may have installed these or had them installed, did you have to remove the rudder to route the strobe/sync wires? Or can you move the nose wheel/rudder off to one side to get enough access? I took a quick look today and ran out of time but it didn't look like it was going to be easy. 

Thanks,

Jim

do you have cables going back there already?

[ArtVandelay]

do you have cables going back there already?

He probably has the navigation light wires, and missing the strobe wire, plus sync if he wants that as well.
Pretty sure my mechanic didn’t remove any parts of the tail, you may need fancy tools (hemostat) to thread the wire(s).


Tom

[JimB]

I have a nav and ground but will need to at least run the strobe. I think I am going to sync the wings but have the tail off sync. 

Ok. Thanks for the feedback. I'll take a closer look tomorrow. 

[Skates97]

I just did this yesterday. I had all the inspection panels out for annual and it would have been easy to run the new wire if it weren't for someone putting in some butt connectors sometime in the past, that required removing the tail cone to get to it. Other than that it was fairly easy, I used electrical tape to attach the new wire to the old wire and carefully pulled it through. I overlapped it by about 3-4 inches (didn't want them pulling apart) and tried to wrap the tape tight so it would fit through the grommets. Turned out that the wire didn't slip at all when pulling through. Once inside the empennage I was able to reach everything. 

I ran this shielded 20ga 3 wire (power/strobe/sync)and a separate 18ga single wire for the ground. I have Aveo's on the wings and a Wheelen on the tail. They have a different sync pattern (I'm sure not an issue if you have all Wheelen) so it had them all jacked up because every time the wings would blink the tail would try to and vice versa. I just disconnected the tail from the sync and they look great. I actually like it with the tail not synced, I think it provides greater visibility because of the different rates of flashing.

https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/elpages/edmotefzel.php