Eureka! At 1324 hours yesterday I successfully completed the installation of new trim wire in my coupe replacing the safety wire that the previous owners relied on. I could not have done it without the help of this group. I would like to give thanks to Hartmut for his excellent description and pictures showing the repair of a broken wire at http://www.ercoupe.info//n=Main.Homepage. I especially benefitted from his picture of the fittings at the stabilizer which showed me how to thread the wire through the conduit in the stabilizer and run it back and forth several times-each time applying heavy doses of lubricant. To Linda whose advice not to replace the conduit in the stabilizer saved me many hours of useless agony; a look at the diagram of the conduit in the stabilizer in Service Bulletin No. 38 clearly shows why she was correct. To Roy Stubbs for suggesting that I smooth out any burrs at the tip of the wire-- not only did I do that but I also put a point at the tip which facilitated threading the wire through the bolt holes. And to Kevin for suggesting I feed the wire through the rear; I've done it both ways and Kevin is right. Thanks to you all. I have learned a few things that I'd like to pass on: 1. Although Hartmut's picture shows the wire on the inboard side of the trim handle Service Bulletin No. 38 recommends it be installed on the outboard side. I installed it on the outboard side to allow the fastener to pivot freely as Hartmut recommends. 2. Linda's advice to use copious amount of lithium grease to help the wire move freely is undoubtedly correct but I had no lithium around. I did have silicon spray left over from installing the new welt on the sliding windows though. I worked like a charm! 3. Although I can't imagine doing this job without visegrip pliers they have a tendency to mark the wire and cause burrs which greatly complicate the job of threading the wire through the bolt holes. Solution: sand the wire before threading through the holes. Better yet, use two washers or similar to prevent the plier teeth from touching the wire in the first place. 4. If you have complied with Service Bulletin No. 55A Installation of Trim Tab Stops and Springs to reduce the chance of flutter if the trim wire fails, then rigging the trim tab according to Bulletin No.38 doesn't make sense. Instead I set the trim control handle in the cockpit to the full forward position (nose up) and secured the trim wire to the swivel on the elevator to the full up position. Consequently moving the control handle to the full back position moved the tab to the full down position which is what you would want to assist in a rapid descent. I hope to acquire some expertise in the future so I can give back to the group some measure of what they have given me. Thank you.
Mac McMahon N94184 VKX Friendly, MD
