The last remaining task on the HS and elevators was installing washers between each elevator horn and the center bearing, then torquing down the whole assembly. As with the elevator brackets, the objective here is to avoid binding in elevator travel by eliminating any sideload on the center bearing. That means eliminating the horn-to-bearing hap with washers.

The plans call for using AN960 (thick) and/or 960L (thin) washers on each side, but on the left side I couldn’t find a combination of washers that would fill the gap. Some other folks have fabricated spacers from aluminum tube in lieu of using washers, so I tried that using some spare 6061-T6 tubing. Came out pretty nice but after the nut was torqued down, elevator movement wasn’t quite as free as before.

After doing some additional research, I think the elevator movement is fine. The bearings will wear in a bit, and if not there are some tricks that will reduce center bearing friction if required. So with that, the horizontal portion of the empennage is complete!