The landing gear wire actually broke? Wow...although this type of wire gear does bend somewhat easily, I'm surprised it would actually break.

Does the version you have use a split elevator with two pushrods (one for each half)?

I noticed the problem with full rudder deflection coupled with full up elevator...I haven't flown it yet, but I had actually decreased the elevator throws to keep the rudder out of it. Sounds like you got yours under similar circumstances - I got a steal on mine as well so I knew there'd be some kinks to work out.