PA-24 Removing Horizontal Stabilator

[Samuel Gootzeit]

Hi All, I have my single Comanche in a hangar for the winter and thought I'd do the horn AD. Of course the first thing to do is remove the stabilator. I have all the bolts out and am able to rotate the stabilator on the tube a little with a great deal of force. And thats it. It won't move in or out on the tube at all. I was wondering if there are any tips to removing the stabilator? I'll probably try heat in the near future.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks...

[Kristin Winter]

Drowning the torque tube in the area between the two bolts with penetrating oil is a good first start. Keep twisting and pulling and see if you can get half an inch to an inch of outboard travel. The remove the four bolts holding the inboard yoke, which rides on the torque tube, from the stabilator. Then work the stabilator off. The outboard yoke, only had to come outboard an inch or so before it will be off the torque tube and then the whole stabilator half will come off, sans inbd yoke. Clean the corrosion off the tube and slight off the inboard yoke. If you have that much corrosion, the torque tube likely needs to be replaced. See SB 1160 for limits there.

[Samuel Gootzeit]

Thanks for the advice. I used some liquid wrench and a bunch of elbow grease and wrenched them suckers off. Used muscles that I didn't know I had. I'm not sure it's possible to remove the inboard retainers while the stabilator is on the torque tube. The aft bolts have almost no clearance and the only tool I could possibly get on it was an opened ended wrench. Now that the stabilator is off I can replace the hardware for next time. Also I didn't notice much if any corrosion. Once I get the torque tube off, I'll clean it up and prime it.

[Edward Pencosky]

look at previous post REMOVING HORIZONTAL STABILATOR I posted last Feb how i removed my stab

[Kristin Winter]

If you prime the outside of the torque tube, you will likely not be able to slide the stabilator back on. Cad plating or a new torque tube is a better idea. The torque tubes haven't been that expensive.