Question about castle nuts...

I assembled my rudder pedals and brake pedals awhile ago and then stored them away in my attic. So now I'm at the point where I'm almost ready to install them in the fuse and get all the brake lines run. When I assembled them I installed the bolts and castle nuts, but didnt cotter pin them or torque them. Looking around in AC 43.13 I cant really find anything about bolts and nuts that act as a bearing like the bolts that hold the brake pedals on. I guess what I'm asking is should I torque these bolts down to the standard 20-25in-lbs or will this defeat the purpose and cause them to bind? Or should I leave them somewhat loose to allow more freedom of movement not worrying about the nut because it is cotter pinned in place?

You want the pedals to move freely, so no 'torque value' as such, only tight enough so the bolts don't wabble in the holes. Note that you don't want them too loose either as when foot pressure is applied the bolt will act like it wants to bind sideways. Watch how you orient the cotter pins so they don't snag anything under there.

The reason you cant find anything in the AC is because youre using a bolt as a pin.....In general a pin would have holes drilled through at each end to put cotter pins through and keep the pin from falling out. In your case, youve just eliminated one cotter pin by having a bolt head instead. Treat it like a pin, not a bolt.

I presume you are doing the long bolt mod?
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showpost.php?p=302890&postcount=6
I didn't origionally, and when I assembled the pedals it was a constant battle between having the torque high enough that the pedals wern't flopping around, but when they were tightened to solve this, there was severe binding. This long bolt mod fixes that.
Other mods may be found in the link below. It was interesting to note that even Mike Seager's RV-7 assembled by the Van's facility also had the spring mod.
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=46755
Tom.

I did do the long bolt mod. It seemed like a good mod to do. I am leaving the return spring mod for later "as needed".

The "bolt as a pin" description is really good. I checked "pins" in the AC and didn't find anything specific to this configurations. I would think this would be found in many aircraft applications.

All of your feedback is what I was thinking, I just wanted to make sure I was seeing the whole problem before jumping in.

Clevis Pin:

Personally, wherever practical I like to install bushings in any pivot point so that the bolt can be snugged up tight and does not act like an axle. Doing this mod right now on my Rocket rudder pedals. In my case it's going to require some minor welding and machine work, but is really the "rightest" way to do it. I know why Van does it the way he does - considering the application, it's "good enough" - but is not really up to an aerospace gold standard.

Sticking with the Vans method however, the others advice is spot on: just tight enough to maintain alignment of the hardware, but loose enough to allow freedom of movement. Finger tight (literally, without a wrench) is plenty.

Castle Nuts

For all primary flight controls I use the special castle nuts with the self locking feature. That way if the cotter pin is somehow compromised the nut will stay in place.
Aircraft Spruce stocks these.
Also stainless cotter pins are much more durable in the small sizes.