Elevator pushrod rod ends

[rv6ejguy]

Working on the elevator pushrod right now but am confused with the rod ends specified appearing too wide to fit the F635 bellcrank. MD3616Ms are specified but they are .500 wide. The ID of the F635 bellcrank blades are only .375. All the rod ends that were supplied in bag 1145 are too wide and/or too short according to other dimensions. Anyone run into this?

 

[rv6ejguy]

I talked to Vans on this one and they admitted there was a production issue with the bend angles on the bellcrank halves. It's easier to fix before your rivet them together so for others not yet at this step- be advised that you'll have to rebend the angles to allow for parallel blades with a .500 inch ID instead of the .375 inch dimension in the production parts. No fun bending .063 2024 once it's assembled- believe me.

 

[Ron Davis]

How?

I just left the garage frustrated as I thought this would be a piece of cake. How did you bend these to fit? I just basically crammed the rod ends in so I could continue with length adjustment. The fitting is splayed quite a bit at the top and cannot be installed this way permaanently.

Thank,

Ron

 

[Dave Oakes]

Push Rod bell crank

Ron,
What about disassembling one end of the Bellcrank, 2 rivets, and adding another spacer?
I have not done that as of this moment, but it sounds promising to think about it.
Dave

 

[Ron Davis]

Elevator Pushrods

Dave,

I ended up just bending the aluminum by using a wedge to pry the 2 pieces apart to 1/2 inch and then used my hand seamer to tweak the ears. It worked well. Now I have the problem of the pushrod to the control column resting on the hole pre-cut by Vans. I have checked and rechecked the vertical position. (Is this vertical position from bottom of fuselage or from earth?)

If I adjust the rod end bearings on the forward pushrod any further I will not have grip length required. Has anyone run into this? If so what is the best fix.

Thanks

 

[rv6ejguy]

I just left the garage frustrated as I thought this would be a piece of cake. How did you bend these to fit? I just basically crammed the rod ends in so I could continue with length adjustment. The fitting is splayed quite a bit at the top and cannot be installed this way permaanently.

Thank,

Ron

I thought about de-riveting the assembly and adding additional spacers, then realised to do it right would take a while. So I spread the blades with a piece of 38 plywood until I could fit a piece of 1/2 round stock inside the blades, next to the spacer. I then carefully closed the blades so that they were a 1/2 inch appart in my vise. 5 minutes and everything is parallel now.