Last Modified December 1st 2003.

November 2003, Stabilator Fixing

1st November I attacked the TP5 bonding problem using Rob Water's torque tube. A lot of care was taken to ensure that I wasn't going to end up with a torque tube permanently bonded into my stabilator as that would have ruined both Rob's and my day!

It took a bit of fiddling to work out how I was going to get some resin into the holes and also get the TP5 aligned with the outer surface. Eventually I was able to get the torque tube into the hole with the TP5 into position and the actuating pins slightly engaged into the sockets.

2nd November Pulling the torque tube out of the hole failed miserably the first time so I went a made a cup of tea so I could think about the problem. Suitably refreshed I removed the pip pin securing the actuator pin arm to the tube and pulled that out of the sockets. With that freed I was then able to rotate the torque tube and slide it out of the stabilator.

I did notice that the pins on Rob's torque tube were not a good fit into the sockets on the stabilator which led me to suspect that, as I now had the TP5 more or less aligned to Rob's tube and actuator pins it probably wasn't going to be aligned to mine any more. I was right! I am now going to have to remove the sockets from the stabilator and go through the fitting process over again. As the pins are only bonded in with resin and flox I should be able to apply some very local heat to disbond the sockets, remove them, clean up the holes and then rebond them so that they align with the slightly revised TP5 position.

3rd - 30th November I regret that, due to a circumstances beyond my control, there is unlikely to be much building between now and Christmas.