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Where's the bellcrank?

Lemmingman

Well Known Member
I must have missed something. I cannot find the instructions for assembly of the aileron bellcrank and push rods anywhere.

I finished putting my top skins on last night. Today I'm working on the aileron hinges and such today. Reading ahead I see that bottom skins are next. That can't be! I haven't assembled the bellcrank or push rods.

I found the reference to install the bellcrank brackets back when I put on the tie down anchor, but I can find nothing that explain the assembly of the aileron bellcrank or push rods. Where are the instructions for this?
 
It's been awhile, but ...

... I don't recall any written text instructions for that. I DO recall looking at the drawings over and over again, trying to figure out L from R hdwe and what was right-side-up in the assembly process. It was certainly less than intuitive.
 
DWG

There is a drawing for that, its pretty straight forward on my -8 and if I remember right there is some info in the manual about the bushings. Oh and don't worry with the bottom skins, the bellcrank can be removed and installed throught the access holes after the wing is complete.

bird
 
I must have missed something. I cannot find the instructions for assembly of the aileron bellcrank and push rods anywhere.

Instructions are on page 7-11 in my manual. DWG 15A shows the assembly.

It's pretty straightforward. What version of the manual do you have? Mine is May 2011
 
Will, you're right. There it is. I guess I figured that all this had to be done before the the bottom skin goes one, but I guess I was wrong. :)

Mine are dated 3/06, so you've got newer instructions than I do.
 
Bellcrank

I wouldn't put those bottom skins on before the bellcrank is installed. I just finished this work and the bellcranks were more work than I expected. They went on and off about a half of a dozen times or more getting the fit correct and getting them to run smooth. The bushings required a lot of polishing to achieve smooth bell crank operation. I also had to do some shimming between the brackets and bushings to eliminate binding in the bushing. I would not want to do this work thru the access hole. I replaced the bracket attach bolts with drilled head bolts and safety wired the bracket bolts.

I also hung the flaps and ailerons before installing bottom skins. This allowed checking the pushrod clearance at the rear spar exit holes.

I am installing bottom skins now and everything else (except wingtips) on the wing is ready to fly.
 
I wouldn't put those bottom skins on before the bellcrank is installed.....

Very good advice.

Don't follow the instruction sequence in the manual blindly. You really need to think ahead about when to do what... or you'll make some "later" task much more difficult. For example, I installed most of the FWF components that needed to be mounted on the forward side of the firewall while I still had good access to both sides. This was way before I started on the FWF as a major task.
 
Robert and Rick,
That is the way I figured it should be done. That's why I was so surprised to see the instructions say to put the bottom skins on first. Thanks for the sanity check.
 
ALWAYS KEEP THAT SKEPTICAL VIEW AND PLAN AHEAD

As the other fellow said if you don't it will come back and bite you in the TA$$ (time and many dollars). When we built the RV-6A some things simply did not work as provided in the kit and had to be modified. One mod I made was a safety issue and I called the company (VAN's) to tell them about it and how I fixed it. They said oh yes we know about that, it affected about 60 early kits and here is how you should fix it... My mod was backed out and Van's better mod was put in. I don't think this site existed then. That brings up another point - call the company if you are in doubt, they are hands on people and often they will give you the best information available.

Bob Axsom
 
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