gregoryshock

I haven't installed enough hinges to make me an expert at hinging. I understand enough about hinging to make it work. However kits often come with CA hinges. In the very recent years I've noticed that they break from time to time. Sometimes they break in the worst places. On my hogbipe one of the elevator hinge broke. I realize I will haft to remove the rudder to get to it. The rudder is epoxied to the tail wheel. I was wondering if any of you have created a method for doing this sort of repair work.

huck1199

Does the elevator vibrate? Or does the connecting rod hold it steady?  The easy way is to cut it out from the top, replace and laminated a piece of balsa over it and put on a covering patch.  The hard way is to pull it apart and replace all the hinges with the pinned type - the other hinges may be near failure and this may be the way to go.

gregoryshock

Thank you for your response.  The only problem is the rudder is in the way.  The tail wheel is epoxied fast to the rudder.  I was curious on what is the best way to separate the tail wheel from the rudder. I realize that this may not be as big of a problem with this particular aircraft, since it looks like the tail wheel is screwed to the fuselage.  But, on all the other airplanes I own, the instructions had me epoxy the tail wheel to both the fuselage and the rudder!  The purpose of my question is so that I can learn the proper or best way to replace hinges when so much seems to be permanent.

jester_s1

About all you can do there if you don't want to disassemble the rudder is cut the elevator joiner after slicing off all the CA hinges and then put it back together when you're done rehinging. So what it comes down to is which you'd prefer to do- take the tailwheel out of the rudder and and rehinge the rudder (which it may need if a elevator hinge has failed) or cut the elevator in half in order to work around the rudder.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Run a blade through all the hinges on both the rudder and elevator, now with both loose except the piano wire from the the tailwheel bering block it will be easy to rotate the rudder back and forth to break the the rod free and slide the rudder off.

John

Kaos Rulz

My recommendation is to make two Monocoat hinges. One in maroon and one in white to match your color design. You won't have to cut, or disassemble anything. Well.....I would cut any excess broken hinge, but that'll be the only cutting needed.

jester_s1

I'm no fan of using Monokote for the strength of a hinge. The stuff does stretch over time and isn't made to be flexed like that. It's not really a big job to rehinge that tail properly either with more CA hinges or with a pinned hinge (my preference).

Charlie P.

I never replace a CA hinge with a new CA hinge.  I slice out the CA hinges and epoxy DuBro pinned Nylon hinges in their place. 

Once one goes I figure the rest along that hinge line are suspect, anyhow.