Hello friends.
Anyone replace the plastic tubes (conduits) that exit towards the aft of the airplane.
They are held inside by adel clamps and I can’t figure out how to get 2 hands inside a very tight space to loosen the adel clamp to remove the old tube and replace with the new one.
Any ideas are welcome and if you have the correct size and type of tube, it would be really helpful.
Thanks in advance !
As an early RV-4 builder I can tell you there are some "issues" associated with what you are trying to do.
The first is access - unless your bird has access/inspection covers on both sides of the tailcone (plans called for only one), there is almost no way to get both hands where they need to be ...
Next is the attachment of the Adel clamp holding the tubing. If installed according to plans, you have the bolt, washers & nut (on the bottom), and you can't remove the bolt with one hand access only. This tubing was installed prior to closing out the aft deck of the tailcone when access was not limited, so using a simple bolted connection didn't seem like a big deal (now it does).
Those of us looking to maintenance 20 years down the road had inspection plates on both side of the fuselage there and used an anchor nut riveted to the underside of the longeron to allow one hand removal/replacement of the Adel clamp. Lastly is the tube in question (1/4" Nylo Flo tubing) was installed with the rudder cables in sequence and was slipped over (without splitting) the turnbuckle shaft before the turnbuckle body was installed at the rudder pedal location (thus "trapping" it). So even if you could get the Adel clamp free, you still have the problem of removing the original tubing and replacing it without stripping out the entire length of rudder cable to replace a new section of tube.
Without the above foresight toward future maintenance requirements, you may struggle with this task ...
What ever you choose - best of luck.
HFS - RV-4 S/N 1136
A way forward might be if (and that's a big IF) you can slip the tube free of the Adel clamp, unthread the turnbuckle (at the rudder pedal), pull the cable aft until enough has been exposed to allow the NyloFlo tubing to clear the exit fairing on the fuselage, remove the tubing, by slitting or some other means, then slit a new piece of tubing and place it over the rudder cable (which is now outside the fuselage). Now get some 3:1 shrink tube long enough to go over the new tubing + about a 1/4 of an inch. shrink it over the tube to "seal" it back to its original state (almost), reinstall it all, with the tube slit up, re-tighten the Adel clamp and you're good to go ...
