Monday, July 26, 2021

Investigating play in rudder/brake pedals - 1.5 hours

 Side to side movement of rudder pedals with no F-6118 rudder pedal brace installed (yet)


Movement is about 7/32" so less than 1/4". I have about 1/2" engagement of the pedals into the blocks.

I posted this issue to the forums and apparently most people notice this in their builds. Some mention they never had an issue, but I suspect their fit is really tight so they don't really try to get a side to side play. I of course polished the steel tubes to help get really smooth movement which makes the side to side play more readily apparent.

A few comments from the forums mention that the pedals wont move side to side as you should be pushing the pedals back and forth. While this is true, my particular issue is that I am using Grove brake master cylinders which are much more thick than the Matco brakes and are much more prone to interference with each other with any pedal movement. I need to ensure proper spacing.  

 I dug into my washer collection and notice that I have some steel washers that will fit. There was also comments on the forums about using t-bolt hose clamps or a split collar.


After talking to Vans tech support, we settled on nylon washers to be the best solution to take up the slack and prevent the brake master cylinders from potentially rubbing.