14-13 flap cables

J

Jarod

New member
Howdy, folks! New forum member here, and glad to be part of a great community. So, I'm doing some work on the root section of my wings and discovered the flap cables have a splice near the attachment at the hand lever. It looks like this was done because the turnbuckle is slightly too big to feed through the sleaves/fairleads that are welded to to the fuselage below the front floorboard. Has anyone reamed out those fairleads a bit (only 1/32" extra diameter needed), so you can pass a turnbuckle through them and thus have a one-piece flap cable? We were able to reach the 90-degree pulley under the back seat and remove it in order to make that turn, so this is doable. The splice on my cable is like a Nicropess, only it has one full-length crimp instead of 3 small crimps. It makes me a bit nervous, but maybe it's perfectly okay? It looks like it's been on there quite a long time. Any thoughts appreciated!

Jarod
 
I'm going with a 1-piece cable. We are going to ream out the fuselage fairlead and feed it through. If anyone ever needs a flap cable, DON'T order the one that is listed in the Cruisair parts manual. For some mysterious reason, it is around 20-30" too short. Craig at Alexandria is now aware of this, and I am returning the cable. He has been very helpful, by the way. We were both baffled, because it wouldn't even work if it was one part of a two-part cable. My existing flap cable is 3/32" galvanized (I think) and measures 92.75" from center of pin holes on clevis fork to the far (threaded) end of the turnbuckle (left-hand thread, by the way). If that info is helpful to anyone, there you go..
 
Jarod, this may be from a bad memory on my part, but check to see of the plastic/teflon inserts that the cables run thru cant be knocked out and I seem to remember that they were split so you could lay the cable into it and compress it back into the metal tube. I am not sure on this but you might want to try it. Good Luck. Grant.
 
Thanks for the reply, Grant. Alexandria has those fairleads in stock. They are made from a phenolic material, and split for easy removal, as you remembered. I thought they were an integral part of the steel tube at first, but closer inspection revealed the good news.
 
That issue baffled me before I discovered they were removable. The flap cable being short from the factory makes me think you got a miss-labeled Cruismaster cable. From the flap to the centerline of the plane,the Cruismaster and Cruisair cables are similar but when they turn to go forward the Cruismaster goes to a single hydraulic cylinder that pulls the cables. Our Cruisairs go further forward to the flap lever. I think it is a much simpler system. Grant.
 
Hey, Grant. Sorry for my late reply, but thanks for chiming in. Yes, I like the simplicity of the system, too. The flap handle being buried so far under the panel is a bit impractical, but luckily, I have long arms. ;)
 
When I took a ride with Joe he had to unbuckle the shoulder harness to get to the flap handle, extension would be a nice thing!
 
I will try to remember to take photos of an extended flap handle when I get to the plane this coming week. It is nicely done from stainless steel. My plane is the same way with not being able to reach the flap handle when using the shoulder harness. Shoulder harnesses are pretty useless if you cant use them during takeoff or landing. ____Grant.
 
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