Elevator control horn not lining up?

[DaX]

I'm also waiting for a response from Van's, but thought I'd post this here too.

Last night I was moving quickly through my left elevator, but when I went to match drill the control horn to the skeleton, the holes weren't lining up. See pictures below.

The right elevator was incident free - the holes lined up great. I have one cleco in in the pictures below, but it was a bear to get in. I mainly put it in so I could have both hands on the camera.

On the face of the control horn that mates to the spar, it looks like the weld got a little hot and there is some raised metal here. I took the pencil grinder to it with a carbide bit and knocked it down (if I keep this control horn I will prime here later) but there was no improvement.

So what's the deal? Do I need to see if Van's will send me a new control horn, or am I being a bone head and overlooking something?

 

[T.S.]

good builder question

I had the exact issue. Please post what vans told you.
I was able to cleco it (with great effort), but when match dlilled the holes egged out of spec.
I received the "just build on" std reply.
I then ordered a new rib, tweeked (slightly rebent) the angle where it meets the horn, and was able to match drill within hole spec.

T.S.
wings on for mating

 

[grantb]

I've just had exactly the same issue on my left elevator horn. Right also went in fine. Vans advice was to bend the forward flange on E-705 slightly more (see below). I was dubious at first, because I thought this would result in misalignments in the holes with the skin. It didn't, worked well and I managed to get the cleoes in and match drill. I also used my hand seamer a bit to help with the rebending. Message from Vans below:

"It seems that the froward flange of the E-705 rib is not bent far enough aft
and is holding the rib away from the elevator horn. I know that it seems OK
because you have the skins clecoed in place, but we have seen this before.
If you put the rib in a vise between two blocks of wood and try to move (soft
hammer) the forward flange aft some. That should solve the problem. Even
if all the holes aren't perfect, if you can get a cleco in them, they are close
enough to redrill."

 

[DaX]

Thanks guys. I'll try a combination of what you said Grant and what Van's said. Here is Van's response:

You may find that it will fit better if you remove a little material from the
inboard end of the spar web. If that is contacting the radius of the bend in
the horn it will prevent the horn from moving aft or outboard enough. Some
slight modification of the bend in the end rib may also improve the fit.

You can check the fit of the horn on the other elevator also (inverted) to see
if there is a difference in the horns, or if it is something to do with the rib/spar
junction.

Vans

 

[DaX]

I ended up re-working the flange on the rib. The holes in the control horn now line up great, but the holes for the attach point between the rib and spar were off. I re-drilled the holes, made a doubler, and will drive onward. Details on my build website (see signature).