Sender: <marv@lancaironline.net> (Marvin Kaye)
To: lml
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2003 15:13:07 -0500
Message-ID: <redirect-1995992@logan.com>
From: RWolf99@aol.com
Subject: LNC2 Nose Gear Drag Link
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"shimming the drag link" -- I had to carefully file my drag link so that it 
would fit in between the tabs in the first place!  Maybe mine is installed 
ever-so-slightly crooked.  I only took off a few thousandths but that was 
required for a friction-free rotation.

Scott -- when I presented aluminum hardware to NASA for flying on the Space 
Shuttle in the mid 1980's, they made me remove all of the coarse-threaded 
bolts and replace them with fine-threaded bolts using helicoils.  Now if you 
ask me, NASA ain't had no rocket scientists for a long time now (OK,OK, Mike 
Reinath and Valin Thorn and any other NASA Lancair builders are notable 
exceptions) but maybe they know something about this that I don't.  So 
fine-threaded bolts in helicoiled aluminum do not worry me.  However, I would 
be concerned about only having 1/8 inch of material around the hole.  
Standard engineering formulas often assume material properties for holes in a 
semi-infinite sheet -- having such a small edge distance means you have to 
analyze it differently.  However, the primary load here is in compression, 
not tension, so I don't think the rod end will pull out of the hole.

- Rob Wolf
jaded ex-rocket scientist