Rudder Pedal question.

[rwoneill]

Bringing this post back to life. I'm working on the rudder pedal bearings. I had to sand some pretty big burrs out of the actual tube, and I sanded down the bearings to get them to fit smoothly.

I then went to slide the bolt in to see if it would fit with the bolt inserted. It turns out that none of the long bolts are straight. Thus, none of the bearings fit anymore with the bolt inserted.

Should I go through and re-sand all the bearings with the bolts in? Or is it possible that I just got a bad batch of bolts?

[Doggitz]

I had a similar problem and agonized for about a week (SS 7). No matter what I did, I could not get the rudder pedals to pivot freely on the “T” part of the assembly. I initially sanded down the bearings, but found that the internal diameter of the “T” was not constant as the bearing would slide easily in part of the “T”, but not in other parts. I removed all of the powder coat that I could get to, but nothing worked.

i believe that the design of the pedal pivot is for the bearing to be clamped in place with pedal rotating around the bearing (I could be wrong and invite any comments). Fortunately, I live close to Efwd - who is a regular contributor to this forum. He suggested that I use drilled bolts with a castellated nut and a cotter pin. This allows the bolt to rotate alleviating any interference of the bearing with the “T”. It worked perfectly ! You do not need to torque the castellated nut, just screw it on until the cotter pin hole appears and put in the pin. I’m sorry, I didn’t write down the length of the bolt, but I believe it was the same as the drilled bolt. I used some grease between the bolt and the bearing. One thing you should be aware of, as pointed out by a technical advisor friend, is that because there are no bushings on the rudder pedals where the bolt assembly goes through, over (many) years, the holes in the pedals will wear and need to be replaced. I will add this to my yearly inspection. I hope this helps.

Fred
Building 7 SS
Plan 914 and G3X