How much to fix

[WWhunter]

Me, personally, would not worry about fixing the wiring terminals. They could have been done better but I wouldn't hesitate to fly it like it is nor would I worry about asthetics. Your photo's show what I have seen as typical assembly. Sure, I have seen nicer and worse...MUCH worse!!! One of the last Kitfoxes I looked at was an absolute mess. There were huge blobs of solder and exposed wires all over the place behind the panel. I honestly have no idea how the plane was ever given a sign-off and AW certificate. Yours actually looks decent compared to all those I have looked at.

Could you post more pictures of the complete plane? I have been in the market for a year for the right deal/plane. I sold my Super Champ on floats and have been looking for a decent Kitfox ever since. Hate to have all that money stuck in the bank drawing 0.0000001% interest when I could be flying and spending money on gas.

[Dave S]

Propellerhead,

There is one item in the last photo which a person would be wise to correct for sure.

On the far right of your last photo, notice the ground leads attached to the bolt on the top of the strap supporting the ignition modules...the two leads coming from the ignition modules to provide a ground have a single point of failure.... (I am not sure what the other two leads are for which have the connectors).

If the strap suffers a fatigue break/crack anything grounded through this strap is no longer grounded and both modules quit working...this has happened and the occurences have been documented on this list.

The Rotax original configuration has the two module grounds affixed to the engine with separate screws.

I believe the reason for the strap, which I don't think is a Rotax part, was to accomodate the modified placement of parts including the manifolds/carbs on opposite sided of the engine.

Sincerely,

Dave S
KF 7 Trigear
912ULS Warp Drive
St Paul, mn

[PropellerHead]

Thanks for the tip Dave. Notice that the ignition module support right next to it is a slightly different color.. That's because that one already broke and I replaced the original aluminum with stainless. If it had been the one with the ground wires then I might have been another statistic! I was thinking about remounting the ignition module on the unused air box mount like on this airplane:



This whole experience has been so productive that I think I will post more pictures just to see what other things people notice. It could be like a community improvement project for my airplane :-)

[WWhunter]

I personally like that idea. Only thing I will add from my experience is to make sure all the lead wires are snuggly attached to preclude vibration.
I had the unlucky oppertunity of having a very rough running engine that was caused by the ignition modual wires not being tied down good and the wire itself broke within its shielding. Hard to diagnose and very frustrating.

[N981MS]

If the only goal is to sell; my answer to the original question would be to fix the minimum for safe flight.

I would expect a flying airplane to bring more money than a "project".

Anything extra you do is likely time and money spent without significant return.

Maxwell

[Wheels]

Im with maxwell. I bought my bird for about 25k an spent significant money on it over the past 4 years to bring it up to speed. Its now a nice looking bird and joy to fly, but If I didn't like working on it, it would be a project. today, its pretty pretty, and I'm a little smarter, older.

[PropellerHead]

Nice! Mine is still pretty too.. Just needs a little TLC which I'm anxious to provide. I'm really pumped now about getting to it. Picked up some Gates Barricade hose last night. Waiting now for some new firesleeve (old ones were rarry) and a number of other bits. Someone asked for pictures: