When I flew the the airplane after it was returned, I found that the control lever friction was dialed up to "superman" setting. It was enough that fine adjustments of the levers was nearly impossible chore. I can hear a very obvious metal-on-plastic squeaking noise when moving them. What to do? Obviously I start ratcheting the friction adjustment knob down. Alas, no change.
The knob is now unscrewed to the point where I can see that it is 1/4" from even touching the panel side... so clearly the friction is coming from something else. I believe that the control levers were assembled incorrectly. It looks to me like there are extra sets of white vinyl washers in between some of the levers which could potentially cause the rod assembly to be too tight. However, I can't confirm this without somebody else taking a look at their assembly.
I intend to bring the airplane back to the shop. However, it's kind of a pain to get to this particular shop, and I would like to have evidence of the error. There was never a problem with lever friction before in this airplane, and it would be the second time back for lever-related issues.
I was hoping that one of you would take a look at your control assembly and compare it to mine. The pictures shows were taken by laying an iPhone on top of the throttle/prop/mixture lever slots with the flash on. What do you think?
