I could not obtain full stroke or travel with the Throttle
and Prop control cables supplied by Lancair. By that, I mean full travel
and a ¼” cushion to assure full forward movement of the controls.
When you bend the cable to install it, the outer housing elongates and the
travel is shorter. I spent a lot of time looking for a longer rod end
bearing, no joy. My solution was a longer ¼ x 20 rod end bearing
with a ¼ x 20 bolt drilled and tapped (in a mill), then cut off flush for the
control cables. I used locktite in addition to bottoming the cut off bolt
to make it secure.
Steve Colwell Legacy, Cont. IO-550
From: Lancair Mailing
List [mailto:lml@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of rwolf99@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 2:27 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: [LML] Control Cables
It turns out that prop / mixture / throttle cables from
Aircraft Spruce and brackets from Vans don't match. There is even greater
possibility of mixup if you order a custom length cable from Spruce, tell them
that you're building a Lancair, and intend to use a bracket from Vans.
And this is weird, because the cables all come from the same place -- ACS
Products in Lake Havasu City.
As you may know, the standard cable from Spruce has a slot on the business end
(the end in the engine compartment) that slides into a clamp bracket. The
ones from Vans all are captured by a pair of nuts on either side of a hole,
like a bulkhead fitting. Well, that part as easy to figure out.
However, the stroke on the Vans cables is different from the "standard
stroke", or so I was told today. I think it's 2.25 or 2.5 inches,
instead of a standard 3 inches. If you have a Vans bracket, but not the
Vans stroke, then the threaded portion won't be in the right place to engage
the Vans bracket.
"Education and recreation", eh? Well, I'm getting *plenty* of
education. I'm about to order my third prop cable. I'm still
waiting for the "recreation".
- Rob Wolf
still building...