WARNING YOU ARE RISKING YOU LIFE BY DOING THIS MODIFICATION. I HAVE NOT DONE ANY CALCULATIONS TO PROVE THAT THIS IS SAFE.
You need to remove all slop from the control linkage. This idea was supplied by our Kiwi Buddy Bruce. When I grabbed the Pitch Linkage and moved it there was a tremendous amount of slop in the system. I took it apart and was shocked at what I found. There was measureable wear on the thrust faces of the Delrin (or whatever they are) bushings. I am talking visual wear .020 .030". Even more concerning was the measureable wear on the aluminum linkage itself. The rotation of the bushing against the aluminum actually cut into the surface and you could feel it. The ship only had about 100 hours on it.
What I have done here not only gets rid of the slop but prevents any wear on the linkage. No moving part now touches the linkage so there can be no wear. There are three main parts 3/4' x 1/4" sealed roller bearing, spacer and what appears to be a washer in Image 2 but is actually a bearing race. It is a race for a thrust needle bearing. I used it because it was hardened and ground flat unlike a washer.
I machined an interference fit for the bearings the depth of the cut must be greater than the thickness of the bearing. The spacer in Image 1 must be sized to allow for about .001" clearace between the link and the yoke. This is a pretty straight forward machining project that must be repeated 8 times.
Image 3 shows it assembled. When installed there was no slop and I doubt that there will ever be.
