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Test mounting horz stab to aft bulkhead - bolts too big?

Dgamble

Dgamble

Well Known Member
I'm to the point where the aft bulkhead is done and we are supposed to test fit the Horz Stab to determine what washers to use for the best fit. The problem I'm having is that the AN12-4A bolts are too wide at the shank to fit through the holes in the brackets. I went back to the stab assembly pages to see if I had missed something about final drilling to some size, but couldn't find anything like that.

Any ideas?

Later: I succeeded in getting the brackets holes just a tad larger, but failed in finding the daggone delete button on this message.
 
Last edited:
Dgamble said:
I'm to the point where the aft bulkhead is done and we are supposed to test fit the Horz Stab to determine what washers to use for the best fit. The problem I'm having is that the AN12-4A bolts are too wide at the shank to fit through the holes in the brackets. I went back to the stab assembly pages to see if I had missed something about final drilling to some size, but couldn't find anything like that.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Most all of the bolt holes in the kits are going to be tight. Probably designed that way. I bought a pair of reamers, one for the AN3 bolts and one for the AN4s. You can use a drill but the reamers make a better job of cleaning up the holes. I did a lot of priming and the primer will also make it hard to get bolts in unless you ream the holes, and all of the powder coated weldments will require the coating be reamed out of the holes before the bolts will go in.

Tony
 
Tony is right. If the part is powder coated, it most likely/always will have to be reamed to the AN3 or AN4 bolt diameter with a reamer or drill bit. The same is true for some of the other non powder coated parts.

The plans sometime tell you to ream, sometime not.
 
Another little trick

If you wrap fine sandpaper around a small dowel of sorts, and spin it in the hole, it will nicely 'ream' it.

John Bender
 
Thanks!

Good to know I'm not alone, and it looks like I'll have to pick up a couple of reamers.
 
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