Title: More disassembly and discoveries
Cleaned up some of the parts that have recently been removed. Removed rudder cables and fairleads. Rudder cables and turnbuckles are shot but the remaining parts are good for reuse. Cleaned up and lubricated the rudder cable pulleys. These pulleys were very stiff with age. Used some WD-40 sprayed through the bearings to remove the old grease and dirt. Repeated many times. Coated outside of bearings with penetrating oil allowing the oil to seep into the bearings. Repeated many times until the oil coming through was clean. Applied a final coat of heavier oil. The bearings are adequate now. There's some very slight unevenness to their rotation but really the pulleys are unnecessary where they're located. A simple fairlead would be adequate here. Before I got the pulleys rotating, I considered replacing them with new ones. Unfortunately, these pulleys have a unique dimensions and can't be sourced from AirCraft Spruce. For example, they rotate on 6 mm bolts. That's close to 1/4 inch but not quite... So I got the originals working sufficiently for their purpose. I also cleaned up the rudder cable extensions. There are some beautifully machined links that are about 6 inches long that connect the rudder cable to the rudder horn. Why were they created instead of using longer cables? I don't know. Maybe I'll figure it out later. Maybe not. These links and their bolts were all covered in splashes of paint, coats of dirt and oil and just a real mess. I thought they may be rusted. 5 minutes in a bath of lacquer thinner and a quick brushing and they look brand new. Removed the last of the pitot static system. The static port is beautifully machined from aluminum. Another example of an expensive, custom made fitting. Van's RV kits simply use a large headed pulled rivet with the rivet shank pulled all the way through. Dalotel's solution: $50. Van's solution: 10 cents. I also took the latch apart. Again, more complexity. The ball handle is composed of a ball on the inside that threads onto a custom machined anodized aluminum pin. The pin has a tapered shoulder at the base of the threads. The tapered shoulder fits into a matching tapered socket in the latch plate. The opposite side of the latch plate is where the ball screws in. There is a shoulder on the plate that the ball fits on. Did they press the shoulder from the opposite side or did they machine the latch plate down everywhere to expose that shoulder? Either way, more complexity and cost...


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