I am am close to that elusive first flight, but I have a problem I must
address, and I could use some help.
I need to shorten the flap actuating cross tube on the port side.
Without sufficient clearance, the flap gets pushed outboard as it
retracts, and as it is, the port side binds up.
I have only a 1/16=9D of wiggle room on the starboard side, and I
am hoping that will be enough. But on the port side, the flap is really
binding in the retracted position, and after checking and double
checking, it is clear that the flap actuating tube simply sticks out too
far.
As a bit of background, I had two things that had obscured this issue
with the flaps. As I indicated before on this forum, I had been having
trouble getting the pip pins installed in the wings, both at the wing
roots and behind the seats. And until recently, I hadn=99t powered
up the aircraft. As a result, I hadn=99t actuated the flaps, and
didn=99t know I had a problem with themuntil recently.
As for getting the pins in, after lots of measurements. I realized that
I had installed phenolic spacers that were a bit too thick on both
bellcranks in the sides of the fuselage. I took off the bellcranks,
removed the spacers, and tried again. After putting the wings on, with
clay on the bellcranks, which indicated slightly smaller spacers, I
installed new spacers and that resolved the issue. The wings still
don=99t just =9Cslap on=9D, like Bud Yerly=99s,
but they do go on.
Next I turned on the power and brought the flaps up. At that point I
could see that the inboard edges of both flaps (the flap root
extensions) needed to be trimmed just a bit, which I did cautiously
little by littlethree times. On the third attempt, the inboard
edges of both flaps cleared the fuselage, with the 1/4 inch clearance
gap as well, but then the flaps bound up as they moved to the fully
retracted position.
Again, after lots of measurements, it became clear that I have a problem
on the port side.
In the last paragraph on step 2 in Chapter 28, it says,
"Cut the cross tube as necessary. When you=99re happy with the
length of the cross-tube, bond in the bearing housings FL17 using
Loctite 638."
Well, it is clear that I didn=99t cut the tube quite short enough
on the port side way back then (May 28, 2007).
It would be very difficult to move the entire flap actuating tube toward
the starboard side, AND it would be a very bad idea, as there is only a
1/16 of an inch of extra space over there, and I would need to move the
tube over by more than that to get enough room on the port side. That
would just transfer the binding situation to the starboard side.
As I see it, I can cut out a small section of the tube on the port side
and either weld it back together or bond it in place with a smaller
diameter tube as a doubler inside, or I can simply try to cut off the
end of the tube, like it said in the manual.
The latter option seems better, but is more challenging as cutting off
the end of the flap cross-tube (FL15) would be hard to do without
damaging the GE12E bearing or its bearing housing, FL17, or both, unless
I can get them out.
The bearing and the housing are bonded in place with Loctite 638. Can I
just heat those up to get them loose enough to pull out? If not, how can
I pull them out otherwise?
I would appreciate any input, especially from those who are in the know
on this subject.
Regards,
Jeff Williams
Builder A157
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