Center section gap

RV10Rob · #1 12-04-2010, 12:13 PM

Went to bolt my wings on today and was horrified to see the gap between my center section bars is almost 1/10" too big. Has anyone seen anything like this before? Should be 1.688, an it's actually about 1.750. It's a QB. Too big on the other side as well, but less so.

TSwezey · #2 12-04-2010, 04:13 PM

It looks like they added one extra spacer when they were building it. Is like that one the bottom also?

RV10Rob · #3 12-04-2010, 09:07 PM

Yep, all too big--top and bottom, left and right, though this one is probably the worst. It also looks like the spacers that go on the AN3 bolts (page 29-21) are too long, which could be part of the problem. The space between the bars is correct in the center of the fuselage, but is too big at those spacers and where the wings go in. I don't understand how this thing could fit together with such a discrepancy. Will definitely call Van's on Monday, but was hoping someone out there had seen something like this before.

Thanks...

-Rob

Wayne Gillispie · #4 12-05-2010, 12:54 PM

I have 4 large close tolerance bolts installed for alignment and 4 hardware bolts to pull it together on the shims. I did not deburr shims or check thickness of stack so I am sure ours is not the only ones off. Let us know what you find out.

aturner · #5 12-05-2010, 01:32 PM

Rob, did you slip bolts in there and apply torque yet? I'm wondering, and I'm sure Van's will ask, how much the bolts will pull it together.

RV10Rob · #6 12-06-2010, 12:35 PM

Called Van's, and they said the ~1/16" gap should be fine and that torquing down the bolts should pull it together. I will go ahead and try it.

It does seem counter-intuitive to me, though. I can see on the outboard side that the center section bars could bend that much, but on the inboard side, the wing bolts are just 1-2" from where the center section attaches to the rest of the fuselage. It doesn't seem like I should be able to bring in the center section bars as much as 1/16" without stressing something in the fuselage (like the AN3 bolts holding the center section to the rest of the fuselage).

-Rob

RV10Rob · #7 12-12-2010, 10:47 PM

Update: the gap closed with minimal tension on the bolts, so I guess it wasn't a problem in the first place. One minor issue was that the gap made the bolt holes slightly misaligned, so I had to pull it together to get the first couple bolts installed. To do this, I took a couple of my 3/16" hardware store bolts, put them in the 9/16" holes (with a big washer) and tightened them down.

All done:

Thanks, all...

-Rob