Rudder pedal reinforcement KF-5?

[Dave S]

Hi Phil,

I have not had that happen; however, when I got my kit from the previous company (prior to John) both of the brackets welded to the fuselage botton for anchoring the rudder pedal adjustment arms were defective. One of the ears broke off with a little push - all of them were burned almost through the bracket. A little careful and judicious work with a small tip oxy/acetlyene torch cured it. OXY/Acet work is quite versatile and in this case, all the the metal was 4130 alloy so no particular issues.

If it were me, I'd pull the part, sandblast it, V-out the crack if necessary to assure complete weld penetration and do the repair with the torch, prime, repaint and go fly. The torch can also be used to normalize the welded area to stress relieve the area - commonly done in antiquity with airframe welding before everyone went to electric welding.

Most work today seems to be done with TIG or MIG systems which would not be my first choice (particularily MIG). Doesn't seem to be many people who are up on oxy-acet as in the past A competent OA welder would make short work of the repair.

[airlina]

This seems like a good thread to put this in.

Has anybody else had cracking on the rudder torque tube at the pulley brackets? If so, what did you do to repair it?

Attachment 33376

You got my attention Phil, I have my plane home for some winter maintenance , will take a close look tomorrow. Bruce N199CL

[Eric Page]

Phil -- if you're willing to mail them for work, there's a guy near me, in Chehalis WA who does excellent welding and knows what's required for aircraft. He's made hundreds (thousands?) of engine mounts for Vans and does a PA-12 replica fuselage that's a work of art. He did the rudder tube reinforcements on my Series 5 (see my build thread). His name is Steve Furjesi (fur-jessy). Phone number on his website: https://super-12.com/

[PapuaPilot]

Hi Phil,

I have not had that happen; however, when I got my kit from the previous company (prior to John) both of the brackets welded to the fuselage botton for anchoring the rudder pedal adjustment arms were defective. One of the ears broke off with a little push - all of them were burned almost through the bracket. A little careful and judicious work with a small tip oxy/acetlyene torch cured it. OXY/Acet work is quite versatile and in this case, all the the metal was 4130 alloy so no particular issues.

If it were me, I'd pull the part, sandblast it, V-out the crack if necessary to assure complete weld penetration and do the repair with the torch, prime, repaint and go fly. The torch can also be used to normalize the welded area to stress relieve the area - commonly done in antiquity with airframe welding before everyone went to electric welding.

Most work today seems to be done with TIG or MIG systems which would not be my first choice (particularily MIG). Doesn't seem to be many people who are up on oxy-acet as in the past A competent OA welder would make short work of the repair.

I have a friend at work who does incredible welding. He usually does TIG. I made up some pieces today from 4130 steel to weld onto the pulley arms and the torque tubes. That will provide a little more support. I will post some pictrues after the repair.

This all started becuse I found a crack starting on the pilot's right rudder pedal tube in a preflight . . . I don't have the gussets welded on my pedals yet. I have been monitoring them and sure enough a crack started. I pulled out the rudder pedal assemblies to do the gussets and decided to start the condition inspection a couple months early.

Today I began installing my latest upgrade, the streamlined lift struts! I'm looking forward to having them and being back flying again.