Vertical Stab And Rudder Prep

Started the process of test fitting the vertical stab and rudder. First I had to check, and if necessary adjust, the rod ends on the aft elevator pushrod. To do that I used a template glued to a piece of carboard that had a 92.4 degree angle on it. The template was held against the mid fuselage bellcrank with the elevators fixed in the neutral position. If the angle was off then the rod ends on both sides of the pushrod would be adjusted till the template matched. The gods were with me because the template angle matched exactly so no adjusting was needed. Moving on I double checked that the elevators hit the aft control stops before the forward stick control stops contacted. I heard back from Tech Support regarding the amount of hogging I needed to do on my nose up control stop to achieve the needed throws. Bottom line was it was all good and to keep building. From there it was on to dusting off the rudder and vertical stab. I had 2 flush rivets that needed to be set in a difficult place on the rudder base that I'd put off. I still couldn't figure out how to buck them so I substituted MK-319-BS flush pulled rivets. Then it was on to installing the 3 rod end bearings. My new rod end installation tool worked great. No more marring when screwing them in. I did run into an issue with the center rod end. Per plans the center of the bearing hole is supposed to be 25.0 mm from the aft spar. This distance is easy to adjust using my digital calipers and rod end tool. In doing so I noticed there was quite a few threads showing on the front side which made me wonder how it looked on the back side. Once again my borescope paid for itself when I was quickly able to see that the rod end was not protruding from the back of the nut plate as required. I double checked the measurements and part numbers and all was per plans. I took some photos and sent a query off to Van's. I also ordered from Aircraft Spruce another rod end the next size up in length. It's the same longer rod end that's currently installed on the bottom position of the rudder. Even if Van's says its acceptable (I'd be surprised if they did) for my own piece of mind in the flight controls when I'm upside down with G on the plane I'm going to go ahead and replace it with a longer one. It's only $18 for a new one.