tweiss
Active Member
Thought I might make a run at completing the tail kit today,which began with drilling the elevator horns to the HS-411 bearing.
Measure twice (X 50) to cut once, and many hours trying to decide why this won't work, then finally just started drilling.
All was going well until I tried to slide a washer over the bolt. Started to get that hackle feeling up my spine as I noticed the closeness of the bolt to the horn tube. I shaved a side of the washer to get it over the bolt and up against the flange, all the while thinking, this can't be good.
Then came the nut, and indeed it definitely wasn't good. After many many minutes of staring in disbelief, I took the nut to the 3-M wheel and took down the sharp tips off the hex ends, which wasn't exciting me either, for clearance from the horn tube so I could turn the nut on the bolt, .
As you can see these holes I drilled are way too close to the horn tubes. I can just barely turn the nut even with the hex tips shaved down, and I'm not exactly excited about having the tail held together with an altered nut. Any one ever run into this trouble, and what was the best corrective action?
As I'm finishing up on the tail kit, I have learned so many things. Unfortunately they have mostly been after I have drilled or cut material that I realized I need back. I can't afford too many more of these type of lessons.
I think Van's could use a dense guy like me to build one of their kits at their factory and point out things that should be clearly written in their plans and call outs.
Getting tired of calling support looking for information and being told, finding or figuring out something is just part of the learning experience. C'mon! Just put it on the plans in the sequence of the build.
OK, done yelling. Any direction on my issue above is much appreciated.
Thanks
Tom
Measure twice (X 50) to cut once, and many hours trying to decide why this won't work, then finally just started drilling.
All was going well until I tried to slide a washer over the bolt. Started to get that hackle feeling up my spine as I noticed the closeness of the bolt to the horn tube. I shaved a side of the washer to get it over the bolt and up against the flange, all the while thinking, this can't be good.
Then came the nut, and indeed it definitely wasn't good. After many many minutes of staring in disbelief, I took the nut to the 3-M wheel and took down the sharp tips off the hex ends, which wasn't exciting me either, for clearance from the horn tube so I could turn the nut on the bolt, .
As you can see these holes I drilled are way too close to the horn tubes. I can just barely turn the nut even with the hex tips shaved down, and I'm not exactly excited about having the tail held together with an altered nut. Any one ever run into this trouble, and what was the best corrective action?
As I'm finishing up on the tail kit, I have learned so many things. Unfortunately they have mostly been after I have drilled or cut material that I realized I need back. I can't afford too many more of these type of lessons.
I think Van's could use a dense guy like me to build one of their kits at their factory and point out things that should be clearly written in their plans and call outs.
Getting tired of calling support looking for information and being told, finding or figuring out something is just part of the learning experience. C'mon! Just put it on the plans in the sequence of the build.
OK, done yelling. Any direction on my issue above is much appreciated.
Thanks
Tom
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