Y tail fittings

[Bryan Cotton]

I missed that bend. Not too late, except for the rudder stops. Did you bend those too?

[Waiex 176]

Brian, I had the same low clearance. I e-mailed Kerry, and he told me to pull the rivets by hand. On the first squeeze it will shorten up enough ( the rivet) to allow the rivet to completely set on the second pull. I hope this makes sense. If not send him a note , he explained it much better.
John (N176WS)

[Rynoth]

I missed that bend. Not too late, except for the rudder stops. Did you bend those too?

Actually the bending instructions might have just been in the service bulletin for the doubler, rather than the actual plans.

I did not bend the rudder stops, but the clearance is better at the bottom because the doubler doesn't go that far down.... the result is a slight bow in the rudder piano hinge, but my rudder still pins easily and moves freely.

[Bryan Cotton]

John,
Did you bend the aft part of the fuselage or did it fit?

Ryan,
I found the detail on the SB. My next question you already answered about hinge binding.

[Waiex 176]

No bending necessary.

[Bryan Cotton]

Whoops-I just got back from bending. Before bending I did not have enough clearance for a set rivet, though.

[Bryan Cotton]

A quick follow up- I was able to set the rivets with the doubler bolted in. I did two things - first I put some masking tape over a gasket scraper, and used that to flex the flange away from the doubler a bit. Also, I set the rivet a little, pushed it in more flush, set it a little more, pushed in again and then was able to set it home. Go slow and use the hand puller. The trick is that when you start setting the rivet the whole shank swells, so if you go too crazy you will get a big gap under the head.