Flap actuator install

Has anyone had trouble fitting the F-766B angle to the flap actuator channel? Here's mine, you can see the rivets are not on the centerline... I know it's probably not a big deal. Just wondering how others got theirs centered. My spacer, F-766D, measures 13/32 as the plans call out.

Go back to plan sheet 33 in section B-B. Read about the part where you need to match drill F-766B using F-766A as a drill guide when all the parts are temporarilly assembled and the actuator is in mid range. You may be just fine if you did this correctly. If not, you may just need to make a new F-766B. Make sure the WD-613-EF is correctly located.

Roberta

Yep, I mounted everything in the fuse per the drawing. I made sure the flap motor was at the midpoint before drilling. I guess it's just where mine ended up being.

F-766b

Scott,

I have clamped this entire assembly together and my angle is not perfectly straight. Even the plans show it tweeked slightly to the left (as viewed from the rear). If I drill this as is I will have a slanted rivet line approximately 1/16 from bottom to top hole

Any recommendations?

Thanks,

Ron

I've sent this off to Van's this morning but they're not open yet. Hoping someone has seen this before and has a solution that isn't "buy another unit".

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Hello:
I've been working on the fuselage since April and have finally made it to the flap actuator installation. This morning, after preparing the brackets etc., I pulled the motor out of the bag and used the car battery to adjust the arm to halfway between travel stops. Unfortunately, the arm spins and the motor turns, but it neither retracts, not extends (the rod end bearing hole is about 3-3 1/2" from the housing.

If I were to turn spin the arm by hand, I can get it to extend. But when the motor is spinning it, it just spins.

The date on the motor is 05-12-04 and the engraved date on the housing is 10/01/04.

Any suggestions on what might the probloem?

Thanks

Bob Collins
St. Paul, Minn.
#70240

spinning motor

Did you hold the bearing from spinning when the motor was turning?
If you didnt, what you are seeing would be the result.

Geez, you're right. Holy smokes. There are days when I'm just too damned stupid to be an airplane builder. What an idiot! Gosh, you suppose the guys at Van's this morning are waving my e-mail around, laughing, and saying "hey read this from an idiot in Minnesota?

thanks, Kahuna

Room For Improvement

Scott,

Part of what you're dealing with is an artifact of the manual flap days. Van's hasn't bothered relocating the crank arm off center of the shaft - to port - about an inch so that the actuator is installed square to the arm. The angled installation means that each time you run flaps up and down the fixed, riveted on, bracket is twisted to accomodate motion. This asinine installation's instructions have you position the bracket with the actuator half way to minimize the extremes imposed on the bracket as much as setting up somewhere near the middle of the jack screw (per one of Van's engineers).

Just another screwy "We've always done it this way." Vanism.

What I have done is put a spacer in the crank arm clevis, and bolt the actuator to port of the crank arm using a long bolt. This positions it perpendicular to the arm, and so doesn't twist the rivets. The clevis gets a bending moment, which it can withstand. You will need to make another bracket.

John Siebold

Or just build it to the plans and spend that hour flying instead.

Wow - this thread has survived since I first posted it back in March! I have since moved on and will spend that hour flying! I have taken the motor out to paint the plane and am planning to put it back in this weekend as I'm wiring up my ship.

Since others haven't reported any problems, I'll see how it holds up over time.

but I didn't know it came from the manual flap days...

I think the thread is alive because others are getting to this point and it doesn't make sense to start a new thread.


Mindful of Scott's situation, I've just been out fitting the angle to the channel and I have something of the same problem only opposite. The rivet line looks to be 14/32" from the vertex on the angle. Cool. I drew the rivet line and lined the lines up the hole. Perfect.

Except the bolt doesn't extend out of the hole. It's actually flush with the outside of the channel. I can make it come out of the hole far enough to get a wrench on it (and I actually could get a socket set on there if I'd drilled the hole larger than 5/8". but that moves the rivet line farther toward the edge and gives me more of an angle in the flap rod assembly.

Still, there's plenty of edge distance but it won't be centered. I'm sorta thinking at this point, get the bolt to extend far enough out the hole by throwing another washer on there and moving the angle only slightly. And then drilling and moving on.

Anyone see any big deal in that? Is it acceptable to installed another washer?