Advice needed with Hobbico mechanical nose retract
I'm working on installing my first ever retracts on a plane. I've purchased Hobbico mechanical, and for doing the nose gear there is basically no instructions included. I have the nose gear retract and the servos mounted in the fuselage. The retract portion seems to work fine, but I am more concerned with the linkage connection to the rudder servo. The first thing I did, which may or may not be wrong, is flip the steering arm 180 deg. in order to allow the linkage to run along the fuselage side to the rudder servo arm. If that is the wrong thing to do, then I'll have to swap the arm back and re set up the rudder connections. My other concern is the type of connection and linkage that can be used to the steering arm of the nose retract. The connection point has a large slot in it, and that point is also on a pin that can slide up and down. I understand that there needs to be freedom of movement there for when the retract is operated, but it seems to allow too much potential for jamming. I did a set up with a standard clevis and 2-56 rod to the retract link and the steering arm link, and it seems to work 4 of 5 times, then can jam up. I think there is too much slop in the steering arm connection point, and if the arm is not centered perfectly, the retract can jam. Is there a better option for that connection point? I haven't tried it yet, but I was thinking of possibly trying a 90 deg bend on the rod and having a small wheel collar on either side to reduce some of the connection slop. One more thing, can the steering arm rod be flex, such as used on a throttle. I needed to do several bends in the solid rod to get from steering arm to servo arm. A flexible rod attached to the fuselage at several points I think may work smoother. Thanks for any advice. I'll attach some photos.
Lamar