The plane was manufactured in 1980, and has probably sat outside for most of its life.
The ailerons are operated via a long pushrod, and were squeaky/sticky/binding a bit.
There are a pair of rollers the pushrod goes through, hidden and inaccessible in the wing, that do not require lubrication.
But that's where the noise was coming from.
So I lubed them with some
DuPont Chain Saver waxy/teflon spray through some tiny vent holes in the back of the wing, and now the stick has
almost fingertip control, much better than previously. Just blindly aim and fire toward the assumed position 100 inches from the wing root.
A second problem with this airframe was flap flutter. At +/-65mph, with 0 degrees flaps, if you hit the right little turbulence to set it off, the flap free play would let them flutter up and down, rather violently. i could see the wingtips shaking up and down maybe six inches, and it wasn't good.
Look it up, about the only suggestions were to reduce free play if excessive (it isn't excessive on mine) by shimming some part of the controls, or applying some positive flap to put air pressure on them to stop the flutter.
http://members.goldengate.net/~tmrent/soar/docs/135/ramb135.htm -- search for flutter
I didn't like either of those choices very much, but came up with a solution:
A few inches of 1 inch foam PVC Pipe insulation, cut lengthwise to make it a half-round, and jammed in between the flap and the wing, puts a little pressure on the flap when it is in its neutral position, to damp/stop the free play and resultant oscillation, and I haven't noticed the flutter since.
Success.
I'm running out of stuff to work on.
Geeech... Why is there a red plane outline at the top of the pic?
