elevator pivot bolt question

[egp8111]

would someone please direct me to the drawing/info on instillation of the pivot bolt through the WD-605 bearing for the elevator to horz. stab attach. I'm looking for the position of the washers on the AN-4 pivot bolt. I pulled the bolt out for a close inspection(it was fine) and now after I've re-installed the elevators feel stiffer than before. I've poured over the drawings and manual but I'm still not finding any details. Im sure its there somewhere.

Thanks
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191M
NC

 

[Walt]

Use whatever thickness washers or custom bushing it takes to fill the gaps. With the correct spacers installed you should be able to tighten the bolt with no increase in elevator friction. I use feeler gauges to determine the thickness of washers required. Every airframe is different.

 

[David Paule]

Everything Walt said, plus - it might be an iterative thing. Be careful not to drop the washers or other hardware, it's easy to do that and possibly harder to fish the hardware out. A flashlight and inspection mirror help locating it after it drops.

When you have the right configuration, make a note of it in your maintenance documentation somewhere that you can easily find again. Just in case.

Dave

 

[Roadjunkie1]

Falling parts.....

Everything Walt said, plus - it might be an iterative thing. Be careful not to drop the washers or other hardware, it's easy to do that and possibly harder to fish the hardware out. A flashlight and inspection mirror help locating it after it drops.

A magnet under where you are working will keep the steel parts from going into the elevator. They can disappear in there.....

 

[penguin]

You may have to superglue the washers together to slide them in. The gap must be entirely packed out with shims or washers, cannot tolerate any slack taken up by clamping down on the nut.

 

[Scott Hersha]

The pertinent drawing is below. Notice that there were two types of bearings used on RV6’s. The AN218-P4, and the VA-146 (more common). For the -P4, you use a stack of 960-416 washers against the center bearing. With the VA-146 you can use the 960-416 washers for spacing, but use two 5702-95-30 washers right next to the bearing. Those are the larger thin steel washers. You can substitute spacers for the stack of washers if that makes it easier, but don’t forget the 5702-95-30’s.

On mine, I had a great deal of difficulty installing necessary spacers along with the large thin washers. I just didn’t have enough room to work because the elevator center bearing is so close to the bottom of the VS. I ended up just removing my VS - took about 15 minutes. Here’s why that was so easy….. my kit (bought used) had a small inspection opening in the tail section on each side of the elevator horn area. The opening was so small that I couldn’t get my hand in there - just my fingers. I’m too clumsy to fiddle with bolts, nuts, and washers for the control tube attach with just my fingers. So I enlarged the opening on the left side of the fuselage so that I could get my whole hand in there. That also made it easy to remove the three bolts at the bottom of the VS aft spar. The other VS bolts were wide open easy. With the VS removed, the elevator center bearing is wide open for the whole world to see. Made it very easy to install spacers and washers for that bearing. Another little trick if you have two inspection openings and don’t want to enlarge one of them is to stretch a shop towel across from one opening to the other, spread it out to make a type of net to catch your dropped hardware, because you will drop hardware. It might prevent having to go fishing for washers.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nK3xnLy6uMW0frzNl0HnmYD4r5H4_IOn/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[egp8111]

thanks all for the tips and info. I've spent a lot of time magnet fishing for dropped nuts, bolts and washers... Brought up some stuff I never dropped!

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