A B767-300ER ACFT COMPANY MAINT REP SIGNS OFF MAINT TESTS FOR ELEVATOR T/E SHOWING SPLIT NEEDLE POSITION INDICATION ON EICAS DISPLAY.

Narrative

WHILE PERFORMING AN ELEVATOR BELL CRANK INSPECTION ENGINEERING ORDER FOR CONTRACT MAINT; FOR COMPANY; ON ACFT FOUND ELEVATOR INDICATION HAD SPLIT INDICATOR ARROWS DURING TRAVEL UP AND DOWN. NO MATTER HOW MANY HYD PUMPS USED; DOWN TRAVEL ALWAYS RESULTED IN MORE THAN AN INDICATOR ARROW WIDTH SEPARATION BTWN L AND R ELEVATOR. BOEING AMM B767-200-300 TASK X OP TEST; ELEVATOR POS INDICATING SYS STATES SECTION D; ITEM 4 AND ITEM 6. 'ELEVATOR POS INDICATORS TRAVEL DOWN TOGETHER AND STOP AT LOWER TICK MARK ON THE SCALE' A LESS THAN 1 ARROW HT IS PERMITTED DIFFERENCE AT FULL UP AND DOWN TRAVEL STOPS. NO SPLIT IS WRITTEN AS PERMITTED DURING TRAVEL; UP OR DOWN. ALSO THE R ELEVATOR WAS FOUND TO BE 1 INCH HIGHER IN THE NEUTRAL POS; THAN THE L ELEVATOR AT NEUTRAL. WE INFORMED THE COMPANY MAINT REPRESENTATIVE; AND HE MADE SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO TELL US IT WAS OK. IN THE END THE COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE SPOKE WITH HIS MAINT CTL AND HE (THE REPRESENTATIVE) MADE A LOGBOOK ENTRY AND SIGNED IT OFF. THIS WAS EVEN AFTER WE SHOWED HIM THE AMM REFERRED TO ABOVE. THE ACFT WAS RELEASED BY THE REPRESENTATIVE AND MADE DEP TIME. OUR DISAGREEING WITH THIS WAS TO NO AVAIL. CALLBACK CONVERSATION WITH RPTR REVEALED THE FOLLOWING INFO: REPORTER STATED HE WAS ASKED TO SIGN OFF THE ELEVATOR TESTS; EVEN THOUGH THE ELEVATOR INDICATION HAD SPLIT INDICATOR ARROWS DURING TRAVEL UP OR DOWN SHOWING MORE THAN ONE ARROW WIDTH. THIS EXCEEDED BOEING'S AMM LIMITS. THE ACTUAL SPLIT DURING ELEVATOR TRAVEL AT THE ELEVATOR T/E APPEARS TO HAVE BEEN WITHIN LIMITS. THE R ELEVATOR WAS ONE INCH HIGHER THAN LEFT ELEVATOR IN NEUTRAL POSITION. REPORTER BELIEVES THE LVDT POSITION TRANSMITTER FOR THE EICAS INDICATION WAS SUSPECT. HE DID NOT WANT TO SIGN-OFF THE ELEVATOR INDICATOR TESTS BECAUSE THE EICAS INDICATOR NEEDLE SPLITS WERE BEYOND THE TESTS ACCEPTABLE RANGE.