Quote Originally Posted by jmorrical View Post
No fun Daveembry.

I disassembled my front stiffener and torque tube bushing assembly after I finally got the aft mast free. Then I sanded the aft end of the tube and test fit the aft mast several times before I was confident I could do it with the tube installed thru the floor. I have not put the aft mast in place yet.

Now that I have put the forward torque tube bushing assembly back together and torqued the AN4-24A bolt and AN365-428A nut to 90 IN-Lbs as specified on page #53 of the Fuselage Manuel I can hardly rotate the tube. Mitch suggested making a shim from scrap the same thickness of the outboard leading edge skins, about .016" thickness for one side of the blocks. Cutout scraps from the landing light trimmings from the wing build should work. I'll let you know how that works when I get back to it.

I wondering if the specified 90 IN-Lbs torque is correct or has there been a change. I noticed at 70 IN-Lbs the tube rotated nicely. Any comments? As things change and sometimes don't get posted to the manual it's worth asking.

Thanks

Jim Morrical


Thanks Guys. I did talk to Mitch today (before the game started). What a guy....Mitch! Called me twice on a Sunday to reply to an email I sent!

Anyway, he said something must be going on with these back masts because they never had problems before and now there are several that have had problems (you probably being one Jim I guess). He told me to use a heat gun and try to heat it up to around 250 where the Loctite should turn loose. I did and it won't budge. Guess I'll end up cutting the torque tube and pulling it all apart. Will probably have to get a new rear mast because this sucker isn't coming off.

It fit tight but I could remove and install it OK before adding the Loctite and doing the permanent installation. All holes demurred and I even lightly sanded the inside before putting the Loctite on it. It went on fine right up until it just stopped about 3/16" from being completely on and then it just stopped.

Mitch said he will have to see what's going on in the factory. Something must have changed and they are making the rear mast a little too small. So it's something new to the kit that's causing it.

Before you put yours on Jim, (or anyone else doing a build) I'd check with Mitch. I'm pretty sure you are going to need to either sand it down or maybe he will have everyone send in their rear mast to be honed out a bit or something. The only thing about sanding is that getting it the same everyone is pretty much impossible so there would be tight spots and spots not so tight.

I just wonder what the difference will make if I just redrill the holes where it is now in the rear mast, install rivets and leave it. We are only talking 3/16" further distance. The distance between the 2 mast holes is suppose to be 30" and where mine stuck, it makes it 30-3/16". The rod that connects the 2 masts then would essentially split that difference between the front and rear control sticks which I guess would only make each stick about 3/32" off at the top bolt hold of the mast. Not much but I just don't know what, if anything, that would affect. Obviously, it would change the angle at the top of each control stick making the distance between the very tops of each control stick a little greater but I wouldn't think too much.

Any opinions?

thanks