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Thread: dle's Oz Build

  1. #21
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    Default Re: dle's Oz Build

    Yes Eddie, I'm thinking I'll shorten the bolt and per Bud's suggestion, will consider turning the head to the inside, although that may not be necessary if I install an inspection hole as a "just in case" .... either that or extra fabric in that area. Either way, good piece of advice from a maintenance perspective. Will think on that. Thanks. I'd already decided to provide access holes for the nuts retaining the nylon bearing block and RH bearing Assy for the control column cross tube and I dare say there'll be quite a few more places as well. I haven't read the manual cover to cover yet but I'm sure there'll be plenty of recommendations.

    Im keen to put access holes wherever critical bolts and nuts are located. I'm always concerned about nuts unravelling where you have potential vibration or relative motion as in control system joints. I've seen Hi Lok rivet heads rotate relative to their swaged collars in commercial aircraft so it's quite possible for it to happen although nylon nuts should be more resistant to it. That's why I put a green paint mark on the nut and through threads on locknuts so I can see if there's been any nut rotation during inspection intervals.
    David
    SS7 Builder

  2. #22
    Senior Member jrevens's Avatar
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    Default Re: dle's Oz Build

    Quote Originally Posted by Bud Davidson View Post
    An observation. The flaperon assembly bolt requiring several washers is an indication of a wrong length bolt. I have found many bolts of inaccurate length when considering the number of threads that should show after proper tightening. I am doing a IV 1200.

    The picture of the flaperon assembly shows the head of the bolt on the outside of the fuselage. Note: the tube that bolt attaches to is bent inward to clear the fabric when covered. With the bolt installed from that side you will not be able to remove the flaperon assembly without cutting a hole in the fabric to remove the bolt. So, I reversed the bolt so the nut is on the fabric end of the bolt. And that leaves very little clearance so I used a thin castellated nut and kept the bolt length to barely one thread showing. When I cover I am adding a circular extra layer of fabric opposite that nut....
    Bud
    On my SS7 there is not enough clearance to install the bolt from the inside (on the pilot's side) because of clearance issues with other tabs. That being said, there is adequate clearance to slide the bolt towards the fabric covering to allow removal of the flaperon control assembly if necessary. Additionally, if you were to reverse that bolt you'd need to use a bolt with a drilled head to allow securing the bolt from turning in the hole of that assembly. As designed, the castle nut is safetied while at the same time preventing that turning. The assembly is designed for the bolt to only be turning in the bushings. Putting the extra washers on both sides of the bushings is probably a good idea also, from a friction standpoint... a minor thing, but worth considering. It's probably intentionally designed that way, FWIW.
    Last edited by jrevens; 04-02-2017 at 09:52 AM. Reason: Added a comment
    John Evens
    Arvada, CO
    Kitfox SS7 N27JE
    EAA Lifetime
    Chap. 43 honorary Lifetime

  3. #23
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    Default Re: dle's Oz Build

    I see what you mean John. Those two tabs on the aileron tube obstruct putting the bolt the other way round ..ie head away from the fabric. If there's enough room to slide the bolts outboard just enough so that the threads are fully within the bearing bushing, then you could remove the flap and aileron mixer assembly. That works. Looks like the SS7 is different to Bud's MkIV. Thanks.
    David
    SS7 Builder

  4. #24
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    Default Re: dle's Oz Build

    Couple more days spent on the build this weekend gone. Managed to fit up the flooring after a bit of fettling and prodding. Finished panels came up rather nice, not that you see them, just nice to know that they look good under that carpet ....

    The main objective this weekend was to assemble and instal the rudder and brake pedal assembly, including torque tubes and mounting brackets. I knew this would be a bit of a performance as there are multiple parts that need to slide and/or rotate over and around one another and from past experience on other non aircraft projects, this can be fraught with issues. Happily, this wasn't the case here.

    Everything was assembled on the bench and it took 400 grit sandpaper and some elbow grease, and bearing grease, to get those plastic bearings sliding and the torque tubes rotating on their bearing ends as they should. Alignment using the LE of the forward tube was not difficult. What I did have to do though was trim the ends of the sliding torque tube about 1/8" or less in order to get the outer support brackets to centre over the fuselage mounting channels. This required a bit of trimming of the outermost plastic bearings because in shortening the tube, the bearings ride further into the torque tube and want to sit almost directly under the fillet weld of the pulley horns. As a result, the local distortion of the tube by the fillet weld means the bearing can't rotate freely and it tends to bind. So a bit of judicious trimming was required. In the end, it all fitted up well and rotates freely without any tendency to stick or bind. However, when torque tightening the bolts against the outer bearings, I had to be very careful not to over tighten because the bearing plastic swelled diametrically and caused binding of the bearing against the mating tube. A further issue in my case, there was insufficient thread protruding through the locknut so I decided to change to a castellated nut with cotter pin. It's a personal thing but I prefer castellated nuts and cotter pins for any joint in which there is even the slightest possibility of a bolt rotating in a joint designed for rotation. In this case, the preload should prevent the bearing and therefore the bolt from rotating, but I'm just a pessimistic old bloke so ....

    Started fitting the brake master cylinders on the pilot side. So far so good. I'm about 55 hours touch labour into the project to date - probably that much again in running around getting tools, reading documents and scouring the Team Kitfox Forum for bright ideas, of which there are many, and just generally sucking in the experience of others.
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    David
    SS7 Builder

  5. #25
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    Default Re: dle's Oz Build

    Great progress Dave! I think most of us had a bit of drama around that assembly - I think the factory built that in as a 'right of passage'! Great pics along with the description too - it is easy to follow your progress - thanks for the update and hope to catch up again soon.

    cheers

    r
    Ross
    Mt Beauty, Vic
    OZ
    Sold to Richard and Scott Taubman in OZ, 2019. Kitfox SS7,Rotax 912is Sport, Airmaster CSP 75" blades.
    Landcruiser and Cub off road camper (doesn't get any kudos on this forum!)

  6. #26
    Senior Member Cherrybark's Avatar
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    Default Re: dle's Oz Build

    I spent hours building and installing the pedal assembly. Torque it down, decide which side was tight, lightly and, repeat. Repeated enough times that I used new nyloc nuts for the final assembly.

    Great progress!
    Carl Strange
    Flying
    SS7, 912iS, Oratex, G3X

  7. #27
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    Default Re: dle's Oz Build

    Thanks Ross and John. I can see why folks would spend time on this and yes John, it does take a bit of fiddling to set it up right. As a result, I've ordered more nylocs to replace those that I've undone 2 to 5 times, and then some ! I'm also religiously recording hours actually working the project which I hope will be of interest to future builders, and to those who have or are currently working on it. I'm trying to break it done by major assembly. It would be interesting to know how others are faring on the hours as well.

    And that brings up another thought I have. Maybe this has already been done, but it would be good to get a picture of the number of hours flown for each model type and over what period. Perhaps I'll shoot a PM to DesertFox4 and see what he thinks about that before I start a thread along those lines.
    David
    SS7 Builder

  8. #28
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    Wink Re: dle's Oz Build

    Well another productive weekend spent on the build. Managed to get couple of days and a bit on it. I finished up the rudder pedal and brake master cylinder installations for both sides. Had heart palpitations when I couldn't find the cylinders and rudder pedal attaching hardware for one side so I e-mailed Debra at Kitfox and bingo, she knew exactly where they should be -..... and were, so all good. As I'm installing the movable rudder pedal option, I built up the adjustment levers for both sides (broke 3 x 1/16" drills in the process of drilling the detent pin holes on one of the pins), installed the 4 associated pulleys and fabricated the cable guards. Because the s/steel sheet was so thin, I had to be extra careful when drilling and even then, some of the holes were elongated. Intense clamping local to the drill point helped to solve that problem for the last couple of holes. Installed everything and now I have 4 dopplegangers up front !. Once again, I'll be replacing the nylocs with castellated nuts and split pins on these instals.

    Next off the blocks was the centre console. I bought the prefab kit and man, I'm glad I did. I should imagine that making these detent brackets for both the flap and pedal adjustment levers would be a bit of a performance. I dip my hat to anyone who made their own. The quality of the prefab parts is excellent (as with everything else so far) so it all seemed to come together pretty much as per the manual. Lever detent pins are notching into bracket notches as they should, although I did have to enlarge the forward notch for each rudder pedal pin brackets by about 1/8" in order for the open to seat ok. Other than that, all good.

    Next of the rank was the rudder install. Straight forward, with measurements within 1mm of the construction manual dimensions. I did have to run a 1/4-28 UNF tap through each tapped bushes couple of times to clean them up, but the rod ends seated well and everything lined up ok.

    Installation of the fuel header tank was straightforward. I've sealed all inlets as we get a lot of wasps here and they're constantly looking for a place to build a mud home ..... they built one in the exhaust outlet of a brush cutter I have some years ago. Wouldn't start until I discovered the nest and cleaned it out.

    The last thing I tackled this weekend was the reaming of the tailplane and elevator bushes and install of the bearing bushes. I had read via other build threads that reaming of the 7/16" diameter weldment bushes on the the 7 elevator attach points could be difficult. Fortunately, my reamers come with a square ended shaft so it was relatively easy to use an adjustable shifter and the reamer. All done within 1/2 hour or so. However, installing the interference fit bearing bushes (maybe aluminium bronze or similar ?) took a bit of head scratching. I decided to go with what most people probably do - a 5/16" nut and bolt with washers - hand tightening via spanners to draw the bush through (refer photo). The washers have a flat ground on them so they allow centring over the hole. Toward the end, I had to loosen it all off and incorporated a 3/8" nut on the thread side in order to prevent the 5/16" nut from riding onto the bolt shank (refer photo). I've done 4 bushes like this and each one takes about 15-20 minutes to do. So couple of hours work here in total I would think. I also needed couple of extra nuts and bolts because the effort on the spanner toward the final stages of the install can cause the spanner to slip off the nut or bolt head, leading to semi-rounded nut or bolt heads ....... and bruised knuckles. But for me, it's a cheap and effective way of doing it.

    All good ------- so far.
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    David
    SS7 Builder

  9. #29
    Administrator DesertFox4's Avatar
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    Default Re: dle's Oz Build

    Looking good David. Nice bit of progress. I enjoyed the stage you are in right now.
    I also opted for the pre-fab kit. Glad I did. Darn those drill bit breaking detent pins. Finally took mine to a friend's shop and put it under a drill press. Still broke one more bit. That pin is some hard steel.

    It's been a while since I installed my elevator bushings but I recall using my bench vise to slowly press them into the elevator hinges. My vise is mounted on a movable bench so I could get it out in the middle of my hangar and away from the walls. Those elevators are big and you need lots of room to manuever them around the vise. Took me and Dan B. maybe an hour to do all of them. Was nice to have some help on that stage.

    I borrowed a reamer from Murle Williams to do the elevator bushing prep. Murle welded the appropriate size reamer to the end of a long steel shaft that mounts in your drill and that allows reaming from the outside hinge right through each of the hinges to the next. So slick and fast. Maybe 15 minutes to do all of the hinge barrels. Wish I had a photo of it. Worked great.


    DesertFox4
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  10. #30
    Senior Member jiott's Avatar
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    Default Re: dle's Oz Build

    I used a heavy duty C-clamp to press in the bushings.
    Jim Ott
    Portland, OR
    Kitfox SS7 flying
    Rotax 912ULS

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