Lower Instrument Panel

After moving the plane and a good part of the shop to the hanger in Junction City / Fort Riley for the winter we started on the first big project – replacing the lower instrument panel placard and installing new prop and mixture controls. The panel placard was largely cosmetic while the new controls were due to condition. Labor for this project was roughly 12 hours. The parts included owner produced mixture and propeller control cables and a salvage instrument panel placard (Piper part no 21599-02).

The lower instrument panel contains all the toggle switches, mag, starter, engine controls and ventilation controls. In order to change the panel placard everything must be removed or disconnected from the panel. The toggle switches, throttle, carb heat and mixture can be disconnected from the front of the panel and left in place. The cabin vent, defrost, parking break and cabin heat control cables must be completely removed in order to get the panel face off.

After all the switches can cables have been disloged from the lower panel the panel face will simply lift off. If it does not lift off you missed something. Check for screws under the bottom edge. The lower instrument panel plard is a very thin peice of aluminum and can be easily damaged.

Our replacement panel placard came from a salvage Comanche 180 with a different interior color scheeme. It fit exactly and all the holes lined up perfectly.

In order to fit the replacement mixture cable the panel hole must be enlarged a small amount. The diffuclty in this installation is the larger hole must be drilled slightly off center from the original inorder to avoid the brake handle structure behind the panel. My prefered technique is to make a consumable drilling jig with several locaing holes. In this application I used the brake cable hole and throttle hole with a small pilot hole to locate the enlarged mixture cable hole. To drill the hole to I used a step drill to the final size.

This project cleaned up the panel nicely and restored smooth and firm control to mixture and propeller controls. Also completed during this project was the overhaul of the turn coordinator, replacement of the suction guage and ammeter. One project at time 21P is closer to where we want it.