Rigging the elevator
TLDR
- Tested trim connectors
- Rigged the elevator per maintenance manual
Details
Trim motor connecting and testing
First thing in the morning today, I connected the harness/connector for the trim motor. The connectors are in the elevator behind an inspection hatch.
While connecting the wires, I also spent some time to cable tie the wires. I also added a small piece of sound proofing foam right next to the wire to avoid rubbing the connector directly against the skin.
When all the connectors connected, I ran a quick power-on test for the trim motor.
I disconnected the TC connector (tail harness), and plugged to pin 7 and 8 with a power generator. I set the voltage to 11 V and the motor moved. I swapped positive/negative, the motor moved to opposite direction. All good.
Rigging the elevator
I spent a lot of time to rig the elevator’s moving range based on maintenance manual. The manual says the range should be -20 degree to +28 degrees, with +/- 2 degree error tolerance.
I bought an angle measure scale from Amazon and zero-ed it when elevator and HS were aligned to each other. Then I basically just turned each torque tubes back and forth until the motion became within range.
Then I had to torque the lock nuts on each end of each torque tube. There are several, including the auto-pilot tubes. Most of them were easy to access but there is one at the end of the tail connecting to the elevator. The nut is almost completely surrounded by the tail cone. I spent probably 1 entire hour to find a way to torque it. I ended up just completely unscrewing the long torque tube, moved the locknut to roughly where it should be, then installed the torque tube back and jammed it into the lock nut. Then I found an access using a very small hand wrench. I was able to turn the locknut maybe half a turn.
