Attaching Stringers to Bulheads

[nippaero]

What is the preferred way to attach the stingers to the bulkheads? T88? Wire? My old ones I removed from the airplane were wire tied together and the slots were worn from many years of maintenance or whatever. My new slots are a nice tight fit. Should I glue them?

Old Ones

[Paul Agaliotis]

I tie them in place with the wire like in your photo. This allows the stringer to shift slightly as they age and prevent a wrinkle from forming at the joint.
The lower ends of the last two or three bulkheads can benefit from a reinforcement strip glued and nailed there.
Paul

[brink]

I did a pre bend on my top stringers, drilled .20 holes and used thin CA in the holes on the formers and stringers,your right they need to move a little, I used T-88 and had to cut a knoch in the rear former for my elevator trim cables. Did a pre rig to measure my trim holes and rig the trim tab, and pre rig the elevator deflection, glad I did that, it was way off, prefabricated a steel spacer,with finenite adjustment using 3 washers. Thick and thins, the head of the bolt had been filed off, and was not MS or An Bolt, course threads, must have used lock tight on the nut, manual call out is an AN -4 ,spacer, and a fiber lock nut. Top and bottom, kinda looked Like the bottom elevator tab broke off at one point, and a new stop was fabricated, did a nice job, but the angle was a little off, that’s why they filed the bolt head. I had a piece of phanolic, trimmed it to make up for the misalignment, I have never been a big fan on metal to metal deflection stops, I don’t know, just a querk of mine, I had already fixed my aileron stops, they were off to, but not as bad as the elevator. The two pin like rudder stops really bug me, I plan on a fix for that,after I do my fuselage cover, I have like 60 writeups on a to do list so far. I can imagine that Aeronca never thought that 72 years later so many of their planes would still be flying,and being restored even with the high cost!