Sloppy wing root pins

[WISDAN]

Just a thought, you might try having some new pins machined to the right spar hole dia. It might save a lot of work.

[HansLab]

Airlina, is it possible for you to get a hold which supplier that might've have been? I sure would be happy with some of those insers - without having them manufactured...

[airlina]

Airlina, is it possible for you to get a hold which supplier that might've have been? I sure would be happy with some of those insers - without having them manufactured...

Hans, the company was called Accipiter Aviation and as far as I know they have been out of business for some time now. Maybe someone on this list knows more , otherwise you probably could make your own from stainless tubing that is an exact fit for the spar inner diameter. Bruce

[cgruby]

I have a model 3 that I keep in a trailer as my hanger. I fold and unfold the wings every time I go out to fly. I have been noticing that the pins that attach the front spar to the carry-thru are not as tight as they used to be. Nothing terrible, but I am keeping an eye on them.

Does anyone know if there is a spec for the clearance, and if it the holes wear too much, how do you fix them?

I have been thinking about making a steel collar that would go on the outside of the spar with new holes that would tighten up the clearances

Louie

Hi Louie,

A couple of things you can consider, Is the bolt worn or is it the hole? You can check the hole with the stem of a reamer. If it's OK, replace the bolt with a new one, maybe a close tolerance one. If the hole is Really sloppy, you might consider a steel sleeve such as the one I did to repair a really damaged wing root attach point that was completely torn out.

The first photo shows the sleeve, and the second a drilling jig that I made up to align the spar hole with the new sleeve. It's really important to get these hole right on the money or you'll never get the bolt in place.

Good Luck,

[dholly]

Chuck - your spar drilling jig is impressive! For those (read: me!) with considerably less welding skill, here's a homemade hole finder a friend gave me. It has worked great for three planes now. :Cheers:

[cgruby]

Chuck - your spar drilling jig is impressive! For those (read: me!) with considerably less welding skill, here's a homemade hole finder a friend gave me. It has worked great for three planes now. :Cheers:

Wow!! Now that's about as straight forward as you can get. You can't imagine how long I wrestled with this problem until I came up with the method I used.

Cheers,