[Graeme Smith]

I could not find the thread that showed a damaged tail rotor slider end support so I will start this.

 Some 20 years ago I was the RW rep here in Australia, during that time I found that after the tail rotor slider rails had been installed and the boom skin cut out to clear the pitch control mechanism that the weight of the tail rotor itself, (without the supporting boom skin,) flexed the slider rail down somewhat and thus allowed the tail rotor to have some up and down movement, I considered that was an undesirable issue so I came up with this simple mod. I cannot be sure if any up down play was in the post that showed the damaged vertical aluminium tensioner support but with that small up down play exasperated with maybe a slightly out of perfect balance of the blades, could be the cause of the failure, certainly over tightening the belts would not help and the looseness of the slider to rail without this mod would also be a contributing reason for the failure. 

It is a simple left and right 3/16"rod ends with a left right centre threaded shaft, the hooks themselves were Stainless steel. 
All that this mod was doing is closing the gap between the rail and bearing slider so there was no up / down play, Once that was adjusted there was no need to loosen it for subsequent belt tensioner as it would slide along with the bearing plate. I put them on both sides I thought

it prudent

[Lyle Swallows]

i'm fortunate to have a Chopco slider upgrade.

i think this would be worthwhile to explore if the rails are opening up from the original installation/drawing dimensions.

i think larry's vertical support failure was a combination of overtightnening of the belts, no washer under the nut, and perhaps a bur developed and propagated into a crack. washers are there to be the load bearing surface and keep the fretting/friction damage from the loaded structure/assembly.

[Graeme Smith]

i'm fortunate to have a Chopco slider upgrade.

i think this would be worthwhile to explore if the rails are opening up from the original installation/drawing dimensions.

i think larry's vertical support failure was a combination of overtightnening of the belts, no washer under the nut, and perhaps a bur developed and propagated into a crack. washers are there to be the load bearing surface and keep the fretting/friction damage from the loaded structure/assembly.

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A simple test for all RW tail rotor on sliders is to grab the tail rotor hub ands ee if you can move it up and down, if so then the turnbuckle idea is a solution