Stronger, lighter tail rotor push rods are a quick and easy upgrade
for your Pantera P7. The downside of longitudinally oriented carbon fiber
strands (what's termed 'pultruded' in the industry) are these fibers may separate and splinter fairly easily. An elegant mechanical solution is to use an aluminum cap assembly (which is CNCed from a solid billet of 606-T6 aircraft aluminum) to fully capture the ends. This in turn keeps the fibers at the ends of the carbon fiber tube from starting to splinter and result is a very light, while quite stiff, tail rotor pushrod.
Assembly
is easy. Just insert the Grade 12.9 hardened M2x15 screw into the
aluminum cap and tighten with a size-00 Phillips head screwdriver (the
same small size you use on ball links). Screw it in until it
bottoms (and yes, a small drop of threadlocker won't go amiss). Next,
mix up some JB Weld and smear a little bit on the end of the carbon
fiber tube and slip the cap in place until the end cap bottoms on the
tube. Don't worry if you use a little bit too much because the excess epoxy will just ooze
down the inside of the pushrod - no harm, no foul. Next, wipe off any excess epoxy with denatured alcohol and set
aside until the epoxy cures. Finally, screw on the two ball links and adjust to fit your model.