Posted for    "Ron Laughlin" <ronlaughlin@hotmail.com>

Don,
Just got home from vacation and found your post. My rudder hinges had a similar mis-alignment. It was easy to correct. I loosened the bolts and shimmed the base of the hinges with tiny carbon scraps. Lightly tightened the bolts and checked the alignment. Attached rudder and checked for any binding. When I was satisfied with the fit and alignment I super glued the shims in place so they would not move. Did a flox release on the hinge bases. Had to do this on the middle vert stab hinge and the middle and bottom rudder hinges to get all hinge holes in a line and no binding with full rudder travel.

Also, about the twisted rudder trim tab, sorry about the poor cell phone reception when you called. I was driving through New Mexico on I-40 at the time. If my explanation was not understandable with all that static, please
call back. Reception is much better here at home. In a nutshell, I body worked the trailing edge of the rudder until it was straight. The bottom trailing edge of the rudder (below the trim tab) needed about 3mm added to the port side. When I attached the trim tab, with the top aligned with the rudder trailing edge, the bottom was twisted out about 5mm starboard of where it needed to be. I split the starboard side of the trim tab
lengthwise with a diamond wheel about halfway between the forward spar and trailing edge. I used mixing stick pieces to wedge the split apart until the
trailing edge was straight with the rudder. Super glued the wedges in place so they could not move. Removed the trim tab and put a 1 inch 2-bid patch over the split, inside the trim tab. Once that had cured I removed the mixing stick wedges and filled the remaining gap with micro/flox mix. Turned out nice
and straight. Life is good.


Ron Laughlin
Legacy 156

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