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RV-8 Right Rudder Pedal Issue

SRCP2019

Member
Hello all

First post here, really enjoying the forum; I learn something new every time I log in. Just picked up my new-to-me RV-8, absolutely love it. Decided to move the ground adjustable rudder pedals a notch aft and discovered that the right rudder pedal attach bolt/cotter pin/castle nut had been rubbing against the bulkhead that divides the footwell from the front baggage area. It had actually gouged an arc about 3? long and 3/4? wide completely through the aluminum into the baggage area.

My thoughts to fix:
1. Turn bolt around and insert from outside, but I?m concerned about snagging the nut and cotter pin on inside of rudder pedal with shoes or boots when using rudder.
2. Cut wider slot in bulkhead around where it was gouged, and fabricate a box to cover cutout and attach to baggage area side.
3. ??

Has anyone else seen this?

Standing by for solutions that should have been obvious to me...
 
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Without looking at the entire thing I can't make an informed opinion on why but I assume that the bolt you are talking about is an AN23 clevis bolt per the plans. I think you are on the right track that turning that around could create something to grab your shoes so it would be inadvisable. Do you have pictures of the general area?
If it were me, I would figure out why it is happening and correct it. There has to be something about your airframe that is different because there are lots of these aircraft out there that don't have this problem.
The easiest place to start is just comparing your aircraft against the construction drawings. If you don't have the set of drawings you can order them from Vans in an electronic format that is fully searchable for very reasonable cost (like $10 I think).
Once you figure out what the issue is and correct it you can replace the baggage wall with a new one and it will probably cost more to ship it than the part costs.
 
rubbing

When built according to the plans, this clevis bolt is almost touching the baggage panel. If you put anything in the baggage area, this can bulge out just a bit and it will rub.

This panel comes out very easily with a few screws, so you could remove it, build in a small cutout to give space for the bolt.
 
Deep well in RV8

I put the smoke tank in my RV8 front deep well. That caused the bulkhead to push out and rub the castle nut/screw on the rudder pedal. I did not notice the wear until it rubbed a hole through the bulkhead and froze the rudder pedal. Noticed just prior to takeoff. This is something all RV8 owners should check.
 
I reversed the bolt on mine. Just be sure the cotter pin doesn't have ability to catch your shoe.



Hello all

First post here, really enjoying the forum; I learn something new every time I log in. Just picked up my new-to-me RV-8, absolutely love it. Decided to move the ground adjustable rudder pedals a notch aft and discovered that the right rudder pedal attach bolt/cotter pin/castle nut had been rubbing against the bulkhead that divides the footwell from the front baggage area. It had actually gouged an arc about 3? long and 3/4? wide completely through the aluminum into the baggage area.

My thoughts to fix:
1. Turn bolt around and insert from outside, but I?m concerned about snagging the nut and cotter pin on inside of rudder pedal with shoes or boots when using rudder.
2. Cut wider slot in bulkhead around where it was gouged, and fabricate a box to cover cutout and attach to baggage area side.
3. ??

Has anyone else seen this?

Standing by for solutions that should have been obvious to me...
 
reversed the bolt on mine as well. Could always put shrink wrap over it to reduce the chance to catch something.
 
Thanks everyone, really appreciate all the responses 👍🏻

I have the bulkhead out of the plane now, will look at doing a cutout and a box. Position of interference has changed a bit since I moved the rudder pedals aft a notch, so will need to design cutout so that all 4 possible pedal positions will be free of binding or scraping. I?ll dig into the forum how-to?s and try to post a couple of photos when it?s complete.
 
Stiffener

Perhaps a stiffener horizontally or diagonally across that point on the baggage area side may help you win the battle of the bulge.

Don
 
I had the same issue at first with mine. If yours is like mine, there is room to put a washer under the head of the bolt which will have the effect of adding 1/16" additional clearance on the thread side of the bolt while still maintaining the necessary clearance for the cotter pin.
 
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