Idler 2.0 Part II

Finally had the chance to fit the new idler in the airplane with all the elevator control system connected from the sitck to the elevator. I wanted to do that before painting the idler in case i had trimming to do first.

On the first try, there was still a little restriction when deflecting the stick to the RH stop. I suspected the washers I added on each side of the rod end connected to the aft hole of the idler to be interfering with the bearings. I grinded the washers to allow more clearance and it helped, but didn't cure completely the problem. I used a belt grinder to remove material from the washers:

After a thorough inspection of the rod end clearances throughout the range of motion of the stick, I haven't found any fouling condition. I was puzzled. This meant that I was reaching the limit in twist of the rod ends.

I took a step back and realized that the stick had more travel on the RH side than the LH side... In fact, I had only one washer on the RH stop bolt vs two on the other side. Before changing anything, I measured the angle on each side and confirmed the RH travel was 24° vs 20° on the LH side. The travel recommended in the assembly manual is +/- 20° so I decided to add a washer on the RH stop bolt and get back to symmetrical travel. I was happy to find that the restriction was gone after that.

I removed the idler, cleaned, primed and painted. Next step is to fit new bearings and reinstall in the fuse!