rudder cables

[edtropper]

I looked at he service bulletins and saw there was one for the rudder cables. mine have to be replaced. what seemed like it would be an easy task is turning out to be a major pain. Installing them originally was easy because everything was accessible but now access is very limited. The fittings do not go through the cable guides and the pulleys and the attachments at the rudder pedals have cotter pins that are on the backside of the fittings. Getting under the panel is difficult at my age. anyone gone through this problem?

[racaldwell]

Yes, I know the frustration. Sonex replaced my cables because of the SB when the bottom skin was still off. Year or so later, the bottom skin is riveted and find out the cables from the mixer to rudder are 5/8" too short. Again Sonex replaces these with cables that fit. Lo & behold, the replacement cables don't have the tail exposed per the SB. Good grief. So I decided to forge on instead of going round three with Sonex. I marked the cables with torque seal to be able to detect any cable movement in the nicopress fitting. The FAA inspected this and did not call me out on it. So this is a checklist item each time I have the mixer cover off.

When I did replace the cables the 1st time, I installed nutplates & screws to replace the rivets for the cable fairlead brackets back in the tail. So now I don't have to fiddle with the round clip inside the fuselage to separate the fairleads. I can unscrew the brackets and get them out in the open to operate on them.

Rick Caldwell
Xenos 0057 N137RC

[edtropper]

Thanks for the reply. I've been thinking of getting new cables without the nicropress ends installed and do that tin the field. That way I could feed the cables in. I also like your idea of using torque seal. what a major pain once the aircraft is completed.