Outrigger Bearing

The rudder pedals are connected to the nose gear to allow the manufacture of the rudder cables that is the last component in the rudder controls. A search reveled that item 16 the outrigger bearing was misplaced or missing from the kit. Additionally the aluminium cover for the slot in the wheel well had to be replaced with a stainless steel copy and with this aircraft fuselage having to be ready to display at Aus-Fly in 2015 the die was cast - manufacture with what was on hand rather than wait for the parts to arrive [a more practical option]

Some of the techniques outline would be applicable to the installation of the factory bearing but this blog is written to document the work so the builder can claim credit under AC29.21

Lever assembly

Manufacture of parts
A set of covers were manufactured from 0.020'' 304 stainless steel sheet left over from the wheel well fabrication. Cut a 22 mm diameter hole using a hole saw on the center of the sheet located at the top for the shaft to run through.

Using a piece off 0.25'' Bakelite a pair off bearings blocks were cut using 57 mm and 20 mm hole saws. The bore was polished to finished diameter using a suitable socket wrapped with 120 grit aluminium open cut paper until the arm [item 37] would rotate smoothly. 

Centered the bearing on the opening in the s/s cover and then drilled four [4] holes at 90 degrees with a #30 drill.

Cut the arm to it correct length and dressed end [see image below].

Lever cut to size

Alignment
The scrap from the lever arm was dressed and used as a spigot to align the assembly. With the bearing clecoed to the cover and the side of the wheel well was matched drilled. 

Match drilling using spigot

The assembly was removed and four [4] M3 rivet nuts installed and the bearing retained using four [4] using M3 x 16 mm counter sunk screws. The assembly was reinstalled with the spigot and the cover fixed with 3.2 mm s/s rivets. The mating face of the cover was coated with high temperature silicon to seal the mating faces. Once riveted the bearing was removed for final drilling. 

Counter sunk screws are fitted to prevent
silicon entering rivet nuts during fixing

The bearing was drilled and tapped M3 to suit the Seal-It installed on the face of the bearing to prevent the ingress of dirt into the bearing. The bearings seals were purchased blank for this project. The opening was created using the other scrap piece of 20 mm tube to create a wad punch. The outside edge of the tube was ground to a sharp edge at a angle of about 20 - 30 degrees creating a punch slightly undersized hole when fitted onto the lever shaft.

The bearing was reinstalled with M3 x 16 counter sunk screws and the seal fixed with M3 x 6 mm screws. The mating face of the bearing was treated with high temperature silicon before assembly.

Bearing and seal

Finished Assembly

Comment

Doing it again it would be better
locating the bolt closer to the pedals

When installing the bearing the use of the lever scrap as an alignment spigot ensured a perfect alignment with the rudder pedal stub shaft for all components.


Overall all components aligned well with no fouling in operation.