RV-8 and the Rusty Tail Chains

Saturday 5/31/25 was another typical rainy spring day in the Northwet. It had been a weird couple of days. Wednesday was clear and 85 Degrees, Thursday was 60 degrees with a little drizzle, Friday was mostly clear and 75 and Saturday was 56 was some pretty good rain. There was enough rain, and right in the middle of the day, to make flying anywhere pretty much out of the question. So, what to do?

Carl decided to take the day to change his oil. I really need to finish moving out of my old hangar, but am not really thrilled about another dump run. On the other hand, it would be nice to actually accomplish something that removes an item from my "To Do" list. But what?

During my recently completed condition inspection (CI), I noted (wrote down and everything), that the steering chains for my tail wheel were pretty badly rusted and the clips that hold them to the rudder horn and the steering arm were pretty rusted. I wanted to replace them, but didn't want to take time during the CI to do it. I ordered all the parts I would need to have them on hand for just such a rainy day as this.

I got enough parts to have the option to redo it the way it was when I got it or to upgrade to a somewhat better system like the one on Carl's airplane. As it turned out, I shamelessly copied what he had. Fortunately I took a couple of pictures because on a couple of occasions, I forgot exactly how it went together.

This is one of those projects that I thought would take about an hour and I could then move on to something else. It turned out to be more like two.

This was the system as it was when I got the airplane. It's pretty much the stock system per the plans.

It is more evident on the far side, but a couple of the clips were pretty badly rusted.

You can see here how badly corroded the chain is.

While there is obviously a good bit of corrosion on that chain, it would be many years before it corroded enough to actually fail. I wasn't worried that it would fail but that it looks like butt. The rest of the airplane looks so good, I hate to see something like this marring the over all curb appeal.

You may have noticed that the chain is nothing more than hardware store chain. Not only that, but Van's sells it and it has a Van's part number. I misunderstood the material being offered. I figured I'd need two of the part number, one for each side. Turns out, each part number includes enough chain to do one tail wheel, both sides, so I have plenty left over for next time.

While the clips that Van's uses are perfectly adequate and very economical, they are not the easiest to remove nor the best looking. Because I had used them on the Sportsman and other people are going to them, I decided to replace those clips with locking carabiners. I got a bag from Amazon and now have a lifetime supply.

After getting the old ones removed, the first simple step was to cut the chain to length. I figured that the various ends, though different actual parts, should result in about the same overall length, so I cut the chain to be equal in length to the old chain.

Once that was done, the next simple step was to trial fit the carabiner through the end of the chain. I thought there might be a problem since the opening in the chain link looked inadequate to allow the open end of the carabiner to pass through. That turned out to be the case.

Just not quite enough room to get the carabiner through the link. Close, but no cigar.

Some might attack the problem by taking a file to the carabiner to make it fit. That certainly works since very little material needs to be removed. With access to many tools, I went another way. I used a drill to slightly open up the link. After some trial and error, it turned out that a #10 drill was just the ticket.

The carabiner through the end link of the chain.

About this time I thought I had the hardest part done and was ready to put it all back together. Since I have never had these chains off before, the springs were pretty dirty. I try to clean them at CI, but I can mostly only get to the outside of the spring with it on the airplane.

The hookey thing on the left is already cleaned, the one on the right is as removed.

All clean, ready to go back together.

All the various bits ready to be assembled.

I tried to take note of how the spring came apart. Fortunately, I knew enough to only take one apart at a time so that one remained for reference. It took a little bit of trial end error to find the correct sequence for putting it back together. In case anyone ever needs to know, that sequence is: first put the cable shackle on one of the hook things for the spring and drop that through the center of the spring, second put the loop end of the chain on the other hook thing and feed that through the center of the spring from the opposite end. I tried doing it the other way round and couldn't get the second hook though the spring.

The clean spring assembly ready to go back on.

I took the above assembly back to the airplane and started by putting the carabiner through the eye bolt on the rudder horn. When I went to attach the cable shackle, the chain was too tight. That seemed odd since I went to great lengths to try make the new chain the same length as the old one. After taking a few measurements, it was obvious that the new chain is indeed shorter.

I had wanted to eliminate one of the eye bolts by attaching the cable shackle directly to the steering arm. You know, to save weight. Well, mostly to reduce complexity and parts count. While that seemed like a good idea in theory, it was not too practical in practice. The steering arm is a good but thicker than the opening in the shackle.

The shackle isn't wide enough.

I spread the ears on the shackle a little, but that left a tapered opening that would start on the steering arm but wouldn't go all the way on. It just wouldn't work out. There may be another part number shackle that has a wider opening without being larger overall, but I have no idea what it might be, so I put it back together with an eye bolt on the steering arm and the shackle attached to the eye bolt.

The old chain on the left is noticeably longer than the new one on the right.

In looking at the picture above, it can be seen that since I am attaching the spring directly to the cable shackle on the steering arm, there is one less clip / carabiner in the assembly than before. This accounts for the difference in length. Obviously, I need to add a link or two to the chain. I started by adding two links and that appeared to bring the overall length to the same as the old one.

Both chains about the same length.

Upon putting this new assembly back on, it was obvious that it was now too loose. I like a little bit of freeplay in the rudder before the tail wheel moves, but too much and you run the risk of the chains bouncing up and hitting the rudder bottom fairing. I took out one of the links that I just put in.

One link removed.

Now, the new chain was slightly shorter than the old one, but appears to be just about right when installed.

One would think that after figuring all that out, all I had to do was copy it for the other side and I would be finished. Well, one would be wrong. I made an exact duplicate for the other side and it was too long. Apparently, both chains aren't exactly the same length. I took out the extra link that I put in the second chain and put in back on and it fit just right.

Another thing that I learned on the second (left) side is that the quality control in the factory in China that makes the mini carabiners isn't exactly aircraft grade. When I drilled the hole in the chain link #10, I still couldn't get the carabiner through. I had to go to a #8 to get it to fit. It also wouldn't fit through the hole in the eye bolt and I had to drill that out too, where the other side fit through the eye bolt no problem. Of course, another solution would be to search through the bag and find a different one that will fit through the #10 holes. Sure, anyone can do it that way.

All in all, I am pleased with the results.

New chains installed.

There is actually more slack in the right (foreground) chain than it looks like above because the rudder is turned a bit. When the rudder is turned so the chain is at full slack, it has what I think is the right amount of slack. Course adjustments are easy by adding or removing a link. In this case, removing another link would make it too tight and adding one would make it too loose. There is a way for finer adjustments, but they require taking the spring apart again. It turns out that adding a spark plug washer on the spring allows for fine tuning. A couple of washers can be used if / as needed.

Close up of the steering arm end.

Close up of the rudder horn end.

Carl's airplane with the spark plug washer "shim".

Above you can see the spark plug washer as a shim trick on Carl's airplane, where I stole the idea from.

Due to the atmospheric phenomena mentioned above, I didn't get a chance to try it out. Hopefully I will soon. At least I still got a dump run in.

The materials that I used for this exercise consist of the following, in no particular order.

2 Cable Shackles P/N AN115-8 - Aircraft Spruce

4 Eye Bolts, undrilled, (plus applicable washer and nut) P/N AN42B-4A - Aircraft Spruce

1 Hardware Store Chain P/N VA-105B - Van's

2 Mini carabiner 1/8" - Amazon