Finish Kit Update July 2010 Updates
July 31, 2010
Rudder Rigging and Brakes..... - 4.0 hrs

Today was a great day. Got some things done that would of been very difficult had Jim not showed up.

The clevis bolts I ordered came in this week so when I got to the hangar I started working on switching out the regular AN bolts with the clevis bolts. About that time Jim shows up and started helping. Then having some fresh eyes on thing he caught some things like a few missing cotter pins. I climbed in under the panel and he worked from the top. We got the rudder cable links installed with the correct bolts and cotter pinned complete. After words I had Jim climb to check how it felt and checked for full rudder travel from stop to stop. CHECK!

Next we started working on the brake pedals. They were already installed with the long bolts to minimize binding. However the brake master cylinders were not drilled to the bottom of the pedals. Again I climbed in under the panel and Jim made up a shim to hold the rudder pedal in an offset position while I drilled the holes for the AN3-10 bolts. Once this was done I installed the bolts and cotter pins.

Next we started filling the brake lines with fluid. I had made up this back in April that I found on VAF to fill the brake lines. We filled up the jar with brake fluid and hooked up the hoses to the brake purge port. We started pumping air in and the fluid starte moving up the brake line. Then it stopped flowing. We started trouble shooting by undoing different locations until we could get fluid to that point. We finally found the problem to be that the brake pedals were slight engaging the brake pads. Once Jim pulled the pedals into the off position we started making progress. We got the fluid all the way up to the resevoir.

Then we moved on to the right side and repeated the process. Much faster this time. Now we let it sit for a few days and then we can purge the brakes. Jim climbed in and I used the tow bar to move the plane. We were able to test they worked and also that the parking brake worked. THANKS JIM!





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My experiences and comments are by no means to be considered as instructions on how to build any aircraft.