Control Wheel Shaft Guides

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Control Wheel Shaft Guides

The really good plate shops all seem to be pretty slow....but WORTH IT! A bad plate job will haunt you. Cheaper is NOT less expensive.

Hank

[N96337]

Re: Control Wheel Shaft Guides

I was taught to lube them with graphite...but only if they really needed it! The worst thing you can do is spray some oil on them!!
JH

[TimHicks]

Re: Control Wheel Shaft Guides

UHMW-PE also "creeps" or "cold-flows" like Teflon. So does Delrin (but not nearly as fast as UHMW).
Uhmw -PE is very chemical resistant. So is Teflon. Delrin is not. (In my day job, I work with plastics)
I replaced my yoke-Shaft guides with Teflon when I did my restoration.
The biggest difference I noticed was that when I was sitting in the airplane, I could see the bright white Teflon peeking out from the hole in the panel. Drove me crazy. I took the panel back off and colored the Teflon black with a Sharpie.
Consider the color of these guides. You will be able to see it.

[PA1195]

Re: Control Wheel Shaft Guides

Probably overkill (and out of ignorance) but there's several colors of UHMW available locally. White is common and used for a variety of things like airplane ski bottoms and apparently water tanks for those that haul water in Alaska. Apparently it can be welded which is interesting. There's black, blue, and I've see yellow but it's not very often.

A friend had a set of skis bottomed with blue. They were very slick and seemed harder than the white. Same for the black stuff...harder than white. Maybe there's some way to add to the basic UHMW to create better wear.

I've had white weather and crack around rivets on skis. Was told it wasn't UV resistant but UV resistant was available. Nice too find out after a nearly $1000 bottom job that didn't last.

Gary

[astjp2]

Re: Control Wheel Shaft Guides

The original phenolic works just fine if the shafts are a good finish.