- Joined
- Apr 26, 2007
- Messages
- 20
- Reaction score
- 2
Ran into a couple of issue during this years condition inspection. The first was the play in the bell crank. The bushing is worn and has some slop in it. I know there is another thread out there replacing the stock bell crank with one Steen Aero's ball bearing units. Has anyone else tried this? I remember having a conversation with my build partner(Dad) about this was the weak link in the system as every other point has a bearing on it. We elected to keep the setup as per the plans as the bearing would add a few ounces. Sure wish we would have modified that now.
The second was a rust spot about 8 inches up on the slave strut. If it was just on one of them I would have just dress it and repainted it, but it was on both about the same height up. So I pulled the left slave strut to take a better look at it. It never occurred to me that there could be water inside until it was already down my pant leg. After looking at it I could not believe that we left the top open with the bottom welded shut. Flew in a little light rain along with washing it a couple of months ago as well and the water had no were to go. I drilled a small hole in the bottom to drain the water but now i wonder how much rust there is inside down there? The water that came out was not a rusty color is was black and there was some thicker black stuff that came out at the end. The inside of the strut may have been coated with linseed oil as Dad was big on getting that done on all tube we could put it in and get it back out. There is just the one bubble spot on both struts about the same height, assuming this was the top of the water level. I going to sand one off and see how deep it goes tomorrow. There are no soft spots but I believe that the tubing is only 035 so there is not a lot there in the first place. Trying to figure out it I should make new ones or I'm i being over paranoid.
The second was a rust spot about 8 inches up on the slave strut. If it was just on one of them I would have just dress it and repainted it, but it was on both about the same height up. So I pulled the left slave strut to take a better look at it. It never occurred to me that there could be water inside until it was already down my pant leg. After looking at it I could not believe that we left the top open with the bottom welded shut. Flew in a little light rain along with washing it a couple of months ago as well and the water had no were to go. I drilled a small hole in the bottom to drain the water but now i wonder how much rust there is inside down there? The water that came out was not a rusty color is was black and there was some thicker black stuff that came out at the end. The inside of the strut may have been coated with linseed oil as Dad was big on getting that done on all tube we could put it in and get it back out. There is just the one bubble spot on both struts about the same height, assuming this was the top of the water level. I going to sand one off and see how deep it goes tomorrow. There are no soft spots but I believe that the tubing is only 035 so there is not a lot there in the first place. Trying to figure out it I should make new ones or I'm i being over paranoid.
