Wing - Spars
I spent two hours reaming out the brass bushings that go inside the aileron bellcranks. Since I do not have a 1/4" reamer, I had to improvise. What I did was to use the next smaller drill bot, and use it as kind of a side cutter. I ran the drill in and out as I rolled the part. This took a long time to do, but I finally got the parts drilled out enough to use a 1/4" drill to complete the job. Then I used sandpaper wrapped around the smaller drill bit to polish the inside of the brass bushing. I also polished the outside.
Everything fit perfectly, and the bellcrank moved very smoothly. I was very happy with the final results. Then I looked on the plans, which said the brass bushings needed to be cut-down to about 1/64" longer than the aileron bellcranks. Unfortunately, the brass bushings were already 1/2" shorter than the bellcranks. I emailed Van's, and asked them for new parts. Apparently, the aileron bellcranks on an RV-4 are about 1/2" shorter than for an RV-7. Oh, well, I get to do it all over again. Maybe I will have a 1/4" reamer by then.
 | One set of bushings goes on an RV4, and the other goes on an RV7. Guess which bushings are the ones that I reamed out. I am going to wait until I buy a 1/4" reamer before I do these again. Jeff Bordelon sent me the name of a machine shop supply store here in south Austin that carries reamers. The thing is the store is only a few miles from me, and Jeff lives 30 miles north of here. He knows the stores down here better than I do. Sometimes, things are right under your nose. |