Rudder Pitfalls

[jeff7]

The VS and HS are done and redone correctly. Any gotchas or pitfalls to avoid with the rudder?

[Wicked Stick]

Jeff,

It's been some time since I've done the rudder (on an but from what I remember, it's a pretty easy part to assemble. The only thing that might be an issue was down around the bottom horn assembly. Some folks had difficulty riveting parts of it, but if you have a "C" yoke on a squeezer, it's possible to solid rivet all the parts of it. Bucking a few are a little tricky, but do-able with the right bucking bar and sequence.

[dons]

From what I read and found when preparing the parts for the rudder, watch out for where you trim the R-710. The specific edges are the ones that mate to the R-904, do not trim off the tooling hole. I left about 1/2 or maybe 2/3 of the tooling hole and the edge distances were fine.

[MachineMan]

One area to watch out for is the countersinking of the R-916 (axe wedge)
I found that it was important to not go any deeper than needed for the dimples on the rudder skins to fit into
(it's easy to end up with an over-countersunk hole because the c'sink wants to chatter as it meets the c'sink from the opposite side)
Using the proseal with Alum angle method that Van's outlines worked well for me. trailing edge came out straight as an arrow.

Rich

[jeff7]

Thanks Fellas