I went out and examined the latch rods in my plane, and my buddys also-----
Out of 4 doors, and 8 rods, the difference in travel, and position was rather eye opening.
I also went over the plans/instructions extremely closely---------WOW, what a dismal lack of information that was.
Just to clarify one point-----when I bought my plane, the doors were already done, so this was the first time I had actually perused the plans.
What I found on my plane was that the rack and pinion on the right door was a couple teeth out of "timing", and the inner handle was only swinging 90*, not the 120* or so it should have------this equated to apx 3/8" lack of engagement travel at the latch
The previous builder had modified the left latch to include a lock, but in doing so, it appears that there was some re-rigging of the rear/lower rack, and shortening of the front rod.
I ended up having to drill out the blind rivet that is used as a travel stop on the top/front rod, and drilled and tapped a longitudinal hole in the end of the rack. I used a 6-32 screw and washer to make a new stop at the very end of the gear rack. This gave me a little over 1/4" additional travel------which is what was needed to fully engage the latch rod into the fuse.
The plans I have are dated 2005, rev 0, so I do not know if the current plans have the door mechanism with more detail, but the points I would have liked to have seen are:
1. a dimension for the rod travel-----total travel, and total extension.
2. proper arc of travel for the door handle.
3. verbiage specifically stating to install the gear racks butted to the stop rivet-----lousy design, a roll pin is much better----when the inner door handle is in the locked detent position. As it is the only notation on my plans is "note rivet position"-----at first glance, it appears to be nothing more than a reminder that the stop rivets are on different ends, top and bottom. After a lot of re-reading, and thought, it appears that the drawing (isometric
) is showing the rivets in the "stop" position. Or, maybe not????
Bottom line, is it is pretty easy to get the door latch to work, but it takes a bit of effort to insure it is working
correctly. Correctly in my opinion means all four pins fully engaging the structure----F/G top, and alum channel.