rudder pedal freeness

[ken nougaret]

I got my rudder cables hooked up now that the rudder is on. But my pilot and copilot ouboard pedals wont spring forward on their own. I removed the outboard torque tube bearings and sanded on them some more to give an easier fit but it didnt totally fix. Its an SS with adjustable pedals and brakes on both sides.
Will this be a problem if i leave it this way?
Thanks, ken

[Dave S]

Hi Ken,

I had pretty much the same experience at first on our early model S7.

There might be several opinions on this. I know of more than one person who has had some challenges with getting the pedals to move freely.......sometimes the alignment changes slightly just enough to make them bind when mounted on the floor even though the pedal moved smoothly before mounting.

One thing to consider is if the torque tube sticks on the bearing, there is a lot of leverage that can be put on the bolt running through the bearing to the mounting bracket......not beyond possibilities the bearing retaining bolt could end up turning in the bracket where it should not be; and, cause wear on the bracket hole and bolt that would be preferable to avoid.

Depending how a rudder pedal sticks & various movement with the other, there is a possibility of the cable getting slack and causing interference somewhere with some other structure or rubbing on something.

I found that by sanding the bearing to a very slight barrel shape spinning it in the drill press - that seemed to minimize the sticking after the assembly was mounted to the floor. Also, using progressively finer sand paper seems to reduce the friction...I think I ended up using 400 or 600 W/D for the last pass on the bearing after it got to the right diameter.

Sincerely,

Dave S

[ken nougaret]

Ok, dave. Maybe ill spend more time on the bearings. They're hard to sand. I just dont want to go to far.

[n85ae]

Check your alignment of parts, a good chance when the bolts are tight it
pulls out of alignment and binds. Creative use of shims might fix you problem.
Which is a better fix than sanding (assuming they don't bind when you have
them in hand).

Jeff

[Dorsal]

I agree with Jeff, had to shim mine to get them to remain free when tightened.

[ken nougaret]

Anybody gone with stiffer springs?