RV-14 Elevator Rubbing on Stabilizer

Hi.

I have mounted the elevators on the stabilizer to complete fairing assembly. The forward edge of the elevators are rubbing on the stabilizer spar, most notably on the stabilizer attach brackets.

To remedy, I have:

1. Contacted Vans. Answer: Perhaps you will need to remove rivets on the elevator forward skin bend, tighten he bend and re-rivet (new holes). Did not do this.

2. Added additional rivets in between current rivets on elevator bend to hold shape better. Seemed to help a bit.

3. Worked to form the elevator forward bend radius from circular to more of a "D" shape (flatten the curve). This helped a bit.

4. Checked, re-checked and adjusted rod end bearings from print 13/16" nominal to 7/8" nominal (7/8" is max length called out on the RV-9A). Helped somewhat.

All these items helped, but still slight rub on the stabilizer attached brackets.

Any other ideas? Anyone else seeing? Does anyone have a spar to spar measurement that I can double check against?

Thanks

I spent quite a bit of time on this as well. Wound up putting a little primer on the bends to see at what point of the radius they were rubbing and then working to re-shape that area. I was able to do a lot of the re-shaping by hand or just using a short piece of broomstick inserted inside the bend.

The extra rivets are a good idea,; I also added a small aluminum washer on the inside of the pop rivet and that helped clinch up the skins a little better...

I believe there are templates supplied to give you an idea of what the L.E. shape needs to be?
If the shape isn't somewhat close to the templates it will rub.
The only way to correct it is to correct the shape.
It is quite difficult to do that very much without it un-riveted.

There are templates for the rudder, but not the elevator.

same problem when I have the elevator horn 1 5/8" from the rear spar. The leading edge rubs at an upward angle of about 22 degrees.

I assume that I have to remove all the rivets and rework the shape of the bend.

I finally got mine working ok, but it was a chore. Most of the rubbing was on the pads which hold the hinge bearings, since the clearance at those pads is less than at the spar. Also easier to re-shape at the ends of the bends.

Since the ideal shape would be a circular curve centered on the bearing, if I had to do it again, I'd make a semi-circular template and bend accordingly before riveting. Re-shaping after riveting is a pain...