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Kurt Haller RV-9A
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Date: 5-30-2016
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Number of Hours: 6.00
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Manual Reference:
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Brief Description: Bowden cable threaded end
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I wasn't satisfied with Bowden cable "wrap around" connection to the alternate air door at the bottom of the FAB, which was built per the Vans plans. The door wouldn't fully open and the spiral was ugly. There wasn't enough slack in the cable to cut off the spiral and try again. And I loathed the idea of removing the cable and regooping the firewall penetration it comes through. What to do?
I had a small female rod end bearing left over from Vans FWF kit (I think it's used for the carb heat door, but I have fuel injection). Could I put a section of thread on the end of the cable to regain lost length and have a smoother acting mechanism to boot?
Yes, I could! Chucked up and AN4 bolt in the lathe, parted off the hex hed, faced the end, center drilled, then bored a hole with a twist drill a generous clearance larger than the Bowden cable wire to a depth of about 1/2 the bolt's grip.
I rigged up the contraption shown in the images to hold the Bowden cable wire firmly at the bottom of the bored threaded rod. The jet nut on the thread was there for no particular purpose--it was going to be tapped to full thread size and used as the rod end bearing jam nut.
The picture was taken before filling up the bore with a clear liquid flux for a coil of silver solder I had laying around the shop. Applied a propane torch to the rod until the flux started boiling out, touched the solder to the bored hole and shazam, the solder wicked into the bore and made a beautiful fillet around the Bowden cable wire.
But there was enough heat in the rod to melt the solder so quickly that it ran down the outside of the rod--conveniently splashed with over-boiling flux. Gave the whole rod a nice silvery finish, but also brazing the next to the thread!
I thought it best to leave joint between the wire and rod alone. After a lot of careful filing the excess solder at the thread/nut interface, I could vise-grip the round and wrench off the nut. Need to get a picture of the finished job to go in panel 3. I wouldn't
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Rube Goldberg soldering jig
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Close up of the joint, ready to silver solder
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