Control Stick Slop
Posted: Fri May 22, 2020 8:55 amMy Sonex had more play in the control stick than I liked. I measured the connection where the stick attaches to the steel bellcrank, and discovered the ID of the stick mount was about .004 larger than the shaft it mounted on, and the builder had drilled the bolt hole to ,252 while the bolt measured .248. I decided to try making the attach more of a clamp that would tighten, so I took a hacksaw and cut a .025 slot in the bottom of the stick assembly. Then I cleaned all lubricant out of the connection surfaces. Now when installed, normal tightening of the attach bolt would compress the tube enough so that I had a tight clamped fit with no play. This required no new parts, or tools and I did not have to enlarge the bolt hole. The stick is still be easy to remove for maintenance.