Elevator cable tension

Although sparse, the service manual from Univair gives some good information on servicing your Alon. A bit pricey as usual, but a good resource.
The rigging section does give information on rigging the elevator. The tension values are confirmed. here.     

Keith, I ran into this issue with my Ercoupe. The normal aircraft cable tensionometers didn't go high enough, and an a high-range tensionometer would have been incredibly expensive.

However, I fell back onto previous experience with sailboats. Their wire rigging tends to be in the hundreds of foot-pound range and there are some good, cheaper tensionometers if you're willing to settle for +/- 5% accuracy.

www.spinlock.co.uk/en-GB/uk/products/rig-sense#
They make one model for 3/32" to 3/16" cable, and another model for 3/16" to 5"16" cable. Defender Marine is a good source but honestly they're not that hard to find.

I like that one because it just sits there clamped onto the cable while you adjust the turnbuckle, watching the resulting tension change in real time. It is calibrated in kg but the conversion is no big deal... ! was shooting for 72-81 kg tension so I just dialed it in to 75 kg on the scale. 

I don’t do facebook. If I give you my e-mail could you please send me a copy of your Aircoupe annual checklist. I have nothing and the alon doesn’t even have a maintenance manual so I’m begging for some of this technical data.

From what I recall from A&P school an annual must be done from a checklist. There are no requirements as to where that checklist came from and a hand scribbled list on the back of a used envelope is sufficient to satisfy the rule.

I personally have a whiteboard on the wall that I have listed the items that I want to document as upgraded, serviced, inspected, repaired , or replaced.

The Alon owners manual doesn’t list cable tensions

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cable tensions and control surface travels are supposed to be a part of EVERY annual, and yes the tensions are that high.

The captain purchased the cherokee from a dear freind who stopped flying because of another close freind who died in an aviation accident.

This aircraft was out of annual by 1.5 years and I don’t think any inspections were done between these friends in the purchase process. I have no information on who acquired the ferry permit.

I am the mechanic who opened up the aircraft and discovered why the rudder didn’t work. There wasn’t any cable fraying. As I said all the cables looked good aside from the fact that one of them was broken.

The cable end was corroded and broken BETWEEN where the wires were swedged into the cable end, and where the cable end is threaded to go into the turnbuckle.

I created this post because aside from the fact that this cable was broken. There weren’t any of the usual signs that things weren’t all hunky dory.

As part of the annual on the cherokee. 100% of the cables were replaced. This is why I’m replacing the ones on my Alon.

Sounds like sameone not doing their job at annuals on that Cherokee in years passed. Cable fray before snapping. Thinking about it who did the ferry permit?