Well, turns out we weren't quite done with the elevators. After we thought everything was fine, we took a closer look and noticed something wasn't quite right. We had clamped the front of the elevators to the horizontal stabilizer and drilled the holes in the elevators as recommended. But after doing so and installing the bolt, it turns out that something moved on us and the two elevators were no longer lined up with the horizontal stabilizers. Ughh. Very frustrating.
So then we investigated some more to see how this could have happened. What we found is that one of the holes in the elevator horn was slightly too large (slightly over 3/16 inch). Because of this, there is enough slop that allows for relative movement of the two elevators when the bolt is installed. So if the two elevators were (ever so slightly) misaligned when the hole for the push-pull tube was drilled, then this leads to a misalignment that is not easy to recover from.
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| Elevator horn holes repaired via TIG welder |
So we decided that a "do-over" is the best way to recover from this. We used TIG welder to fill in the previously drilled holes on the elevators. Then applied primer to protect the metal. These are now ready for re-drilling. Since we are creating new holes, we can properly size and align them carefully before drilling. Hours: 2.0
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| Elevators primed and ready to go |
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