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Bobs Ten
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Date:  5-1-2018
Number of Hours:  2.20
Manual Reference:  
Brief Description:  Install Electric Rudder Trim

1618 - 1830

Today I worked on the electric rudder trim.

The first task was to fabricate an adapter for the linear actuator. The actuator requires an M8x1.25 stud. The rod end bearings that I am using are 8-32 thread. The solution was to use an M8 stud to fabricate the adapter. The stud was chucked in the lathe and center bored with the appropriate tap drill. The hole was then tapped to 8-32. Next, the stud was counter bored on the back side to provide internal clearance for the actuator screw head located within the actuator. I decided to counter bore because without it, the adapter would be limited to only about 1/4" of useable thread. Counter boring allowed internal clearance and approximately 1/2" of thread.

Loctite blue was applied to the adapter and it was installed in the actuator, then secured with an M8 jam nut. Next, the 8-32 threaded rod was installed and secured with a locking jam nut.

A bracket was fabricated from 1/16 x 1 1/4 x 1 1/4 2024 angle using standard techniques. The flange of the angle was adjusted to match the angle of the subpanel flange. The bracket was clamped to the subpanel flange and match drilled for 8-32 hardware. All parts were deburred and smoothed.

The actuator pivot mount was attached to the bracket and the bracket to the subpanel flange.

The actuator was installed in the pivot mount and the rod end bearing adjusted for a neutral bellcrank position with the rudder secured in trail.

The LAC board was temporarily attached and powered with 6V for a test. The actuator had no problem with the spring tension and worked perfectly through it's full range of motion. The actuator will be driven with 12V in the final configuration.

This mod will allow the placement of the rudder trim knob anywhere, as it is just a potentiometer. The actuator I chose also has a built in pot for position sensing so I will be able to use it to display rudder trim on the EFIS.
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