Brief Description: Hook up Tail Rotor Control Cable and Misc
Did several small things today including installing longers bolts in Carb Flange, final alignment of the tail rotor bearings etc.
The horizontal Alignment of the TR bearings is pretty straight forward using the Self Leveling Line laser. For the alignment in the other direction (fore and aft) I used the same laser but set it on the centerline of the output of the transmission. I forgot to take a picture, but basically it sat nicely on the coupling and projected a vertical line all the way from the coupling to the tail rotor gearbox. It was very easy to align the bearings on that line.
I went to install the bolts in the flexible coupling. The coupling comes with its own bolts which are not aircraft grade. The Safari kit comes with bolts with safety wire holes in the head. No problem right. I went to the flex coupling instructions and found the recommended torque to be 17 ft lb. These are -4 bolts. Now I know that this is higher than the recommend torque for standard aircraft grade bolts, but what could a couple of extra ft lb hurt?
Right at 17 ft lb I got the distinct click in the freshly calibrated Snap-On torque wrench, but it felt weird. On the the next one, same feeling. One more time, same feeling. STOP and think. I decided to go back the the first one and recheck the torque. As I did the head of the bolt came off. Crap I had ruined 4 of the bolts. Who woulda thunk that a cheap aluminum fitting would be stronger than an FAA approved bolt. Fortunately the easy outs worked. I used the ones that have a left hand drill on one end and a tapered left hand plug on the other. Time to order more bolts and torque to aircraft settings.
I hooked up the tail rotor and used my laser cut stainless steel standoffs. When it got to the cabin the cable was about 2" short. Scratched my head for a bit. Then I disconnected the cable from the standoffs and tugged. Sure enough it was long enough. So when you get to this part remember to hook up both ends and the cable itself will tell you how long t
