De nada!

The Cessna trim chain is secured with swaged link pins; the McFarlane chain can be secured to the trim cable with a provided master link:



Although a couple straight pins suitable for pounding (swaging) are provided.

The forward trim chain, which goes around the trim wheel sprocket comes with outer links on the terminal ends of the chain. To use the master links you have to remove the last, or terminal, outer link so the master link can be clipped into place. I ground off one side of the pin holding the terminal link with a 2" abrasive disc, which makes the chain about 3/8 " shorter. Not to worry, says McFarlane.



There are a few tricky bits. The bolt for the trim pulley's at the aft cabin bulkhead is too long to remove in conventional fashion - apparently those pulley's were placed before the rudder pulley housing was riveted in place.



Enter the bolt cutter:



To install the new bolt, come in from the other side (more room) after removing the elevator pulley's and warping the elevator pulley housing slightly.

The right side bottom flap pulley bolt at the B pillar bulkhead (aft of the door) interferes with the upper flap pulley:



So, remove both pulley's, but install the bottom pulley/cable first. Guess how I figured that out!

Several pulley locations involve multiple pulley's and/or bushings in awkward places. I hit upon a means of herding these feline-like critters by using vinyl or PVC hose that would just fit inside the pulley/bushing ID gooped together with EZ Turn fuel seal/ lubricant:



(Which is also handy for sticking hard to reach nuts on bolts, such as securing the ailerons to their pushrods.)



Trim the hose so it's barely longer than the pulley/bushing construct, and gently push the whole thing in while holding it as horizontal as possible. You can help line up the center of the both sides with an awl, and then push the tubing out with the bolt. The tubing helps hold everything together:



I thought this would be a good time to clean-up my rusty bellcranks, so I removed and prettied them up, replacing the hardware and bearings. One thing not immediately obvious when you take the bellcranks out, is that there is a brass wear washer PN 0522629 aka S1450-7B12-032 left behind, which should be put back when reinstalling the bellcranks.

Wear washer (from Cessna170.org):



Here's a couple refurbished bellcranks back in their natural habitat:





The later model service manual describes blocking the rudder pedals when tensioning rudder cables so as to end up with 5/16" right rudder at the trailing edge and the rudder pedals a fixed distance from the firewall, and the early service manual wants the rudder blocked, and the pedals equalized with a fixed distance and then when you're done tighten the right cable a little more and loosen the left an equivalent amount so as to end up with 1 deg right rudder. What?? I went with the later model and former method, which worked fine.

A couple things I thought about after I was done:

Probably should have photographed how the flaps fit to the fuselage prior to taking it all down, because when I was done following the service manual rigging instructions, the left flap is lower than the fairing and the opposite is true on the right. That would seem to make the right wing heavy (it was, a little bit - I adjusted the flap pushrods a couple turns, and she flies straight now). Was it that way before? Dunno. The way you are supposed to rig the ailerons is to first rig the flaps with a fixed pushrod length, and then rig the ailerons to fair with the flaps. I also found I could rig the ailerons slightly up or down, but not right on. I chose slightly up, "reflexing" them like a Maule, but who nows what's best.

Finally, this might have been an opportunity to switch to later model turnbuckles, which allow pinning and don't require old-school safetying. The McFarlane cable ends allow for this. This upgrade would require new barrels and forks/eyes and matching the older AN numbers to the newer MS numbers. Yingling's website can help with the conversion. AC Spruce prices are currently about $280 for the upgrade.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Be sure and follow all relevant FAR's/service manuals and have all work done/inspected/signed off by an AP/AI.

Great write-up!

jrc111 wrote:I also found I could rig the ailerons slightly up or down, but not right on. I chose slightly up, "reflexing" them like a Maule, but who nows what's best.

Reflexing the ailerons has been known to lighten aileron control forces in Piper shortwings. Did you feel any difference in your plane that you could notice?

Hard to say what it's from but it does feel a little lighter. I was attributing it to using new pulleys and greasing the bearings, but who knows?

Great comprehensive service report, jrc-- thanks for posting it!

Good show all around. Hope you had some occasional extra hands.

Chris C

Mostly solo; I had my wife hold a flat screwdriver on the right rudder cable clevis bolt arm and also call out when I hit 5/16" rudder while in the fuselage adjusting cable tension, but everything else was on my own. I did employ a little initiative on the autopilot roll bridle - there was no room for two hands in the access panel, but by safety drilling/wiring the bolt heads, I was able to control the bridle with big vise-grips and get a swivel head ratchet in there while pulling on the bridle with used trim cable (all the while standing on a ladder and holding my head sideway against the bottom wing, so I could look in there.