Two of us have recently replaced the rudder bellcrank and bushing in our Legacies.  The problem first surfaced when it seemed like someone was kicking on the rudder pedals Carl Lewis' Legacy on landing rollout.  On inspection, the rudder could be moved back and forth about three inches without moving the rudder pedals and the bellcrank was tilting forward and aft as the rudder was moved back and forth.  When we got the bellcrank out, the bushing was very loose in the hole.  It wouldn't quite fall out but it could be pushed out without any effort and it could be rotated to about 15 degrees of tilt in any direction while still inside the hole.  Carl's Legacy has about 100 hrs. of flight time.  When I got back to base, I inspected my airplane (in which I had not experienced any unusual rudder action) and discovered the same problem.  Mine was not as bad as Carl's even though it has about 400 hrs.  The rudder moved back and forth about one inch and the bellcrank tilted less.  Sure enough, the bushing was also quite loose in my bellcrank but not as loose as Carl's.  After reinstallation, the rudder still has about 1 inch of slop so that seems to be normal.

The replacement parts had a very tight bushing fit, requiring installation with a vice.  Neither Carl nor I, nor Leighton Mangels, who helped with building both airplanes, remembers doing that with the original parts so it is possible that there is a spec change.  We think a tight fit is essential since any movement of the bushing against the bellcrank will eventually gouge out the hole.  It is also possible that over-tightening the bolt that goes through the bushing could pinch down on the bushing and cause it to rotate against the bellcrank (instead of the bellcrank and bushing rotating against the bolt as designed.)

The replacement was a challenge in a number of ways.  Space back where the bellcrank is installed is severely limited and for both of us was more limited than when we made the original installation because of avionics installations and the elevator pushrod, which both of us ultimately removed.  Removal of the bellcrank assembly went fairly smoothly but only because during construction we had made an access panel that allowed us to unhook the rudder pushrod at the rudder end and pull the entire assembly forward.  Getting to the bellcrank bolts was bad enough; I don't want to think about how we would have unhooked and reattached the rudder pushrod at the bellcrank end.

Reinstallation was quite a bit trickier.  The rudder cables tend to pull forward once the bellcrank is unbolted and need to be pulled back.  The composite material to which the bolt nutplates are attached was not drilled out wider than the bolt diameter, which required us to unscrew the bolt using a ratchet wrench all the way through the composite.  On the reinstall, we could not get any of my bolts (there are three) to thread by hand and ultimately used a 90 degree angle drill with a socket attachment to get enough pressure and speed on the bolt to make it work.  Carl got the front and back bolts in ok but seems to have messed up the center nutplate a bit on removal.  A tap fixed the problem but only after several unpleasant hours wedged in the tail.

If you are still building, here are some suggestions:

· Check to make sure the bushing fits tightly into the bellcrank.  If you can just push it in or out, it is not tight   enough.    
· Put some grease on the AN 4 bolt (that goes thru the bushing).  Couldn't hurt.
· Make sure you don't overtighten the bolt.  Ratchet it all the way in and back off a hair.
· Make an access panel in the rudder to access the pushrod.
· Hog out the composite above the nutplates so the bolts don't hang up on it.
· When you are installing all your neat EFIS stuff, think about how you will get past it if you ever need to get to the bellcrank.

If you are already flying and the rudder seems more than usually floppy, check out your bellcrank.  If it tilts forward and aft as the rudder is moved, the bushing is loose and will only get worse.  If you have the problem, find a 98 lb. A&P with really long arms and wish him lots of luck.  Don't forget to put something under the tail.

If you want more information, please contact me or Carl; or, better still, contact Leighton (leighton@teleport.com) who knows more about it than either of us.