Questions re: Tail wing tightness on SC

[coupe1942]

Okay, when playing about with installing floats for photos, I decided to replace the rudder and elevator assemblies on my SC. My first crash had put a crease or two into the rudder area and I thought I slip on a replacement spare at this time. I was also wanting to find out if the water rudder would cause any problems when my rudder swung from side to side. Any rate, when I put both pieces on at the rear, I found that even with the two screws tightened fully at the stabs, the lower tail wing still had a lot of slop from side to side. I don't recall this being the case before, so I am asking how loose should the tail be at the bottom in this area shown in the attached photos? 

I have removed and re-installed these parts twice, but the wing is still loose. Maybe a full 1/4" play when I put my hand and fingers beneath the wing and lift up or push down. I realize I can tape this area at the joint of the foam and plastic support piece, but i am trying to figure out if this is the norm for this much to begin with or not? The two long screws to the stabs are fully tightened, too. I am thinking that I could put some tape between the plastic and foam to cushion this area and take up some space. The tail wheel and axle assembly is fully inserted, too.

Any answers to this? 

[jklong03]

What I did was cut about 5mm length off of the two inserts that protrude down from the piece that the rudder sits in. That allowed the screws coming up from the bottom to pull down tighter.

[flydiver]

No slop, needs to be tight.
Figure out why the old one was tight and the new one isn't. Something isn't right.

Some folks have had trouble with the screws seeming to get tight but not actually seating. Make sure you have a good fitting screw drive and give it a bit of extra twist without stripping things.
If that doesn't work shimming or jklong03 method may work.

[coupe1942]

I pulled the current tail assembly off and tried maybe four times to re-align it or tighten it down more securely with no good results in doing that. I compared the new plastic piece to the old one and it may be just a tad longer on the posts/stabs than the new one. My old eyes can fool me on such matters, so I ultimately ended up cutting off just a tad under the 5 mm amount suggested by jklong03 and that seemed to eliminate the problem. Try as I might, I don't see just why the difference between the original or the new wing, but I suspect there is just a smidge of length difference to the stabs between the two. The slop seems to be gone. I have not over tightened anything, so I can put a better screwdriver to it for final oomph. Thanks for the help on suggestions for dealing with it. When I think about it, I am not 100% sure that there was absolutely no play there prior to my first flight crash. I know that I had tightened the screws as far as it would allow at the time though, but with the stock screwdriver that was originally supplied with the plane. Perhaps this was a factor in my crash, but I can only guess and speculate on that.

I do wish to get out and try another attempt as soon as possible, but some blood pressure issues have played havoc with me lately and my B/P is not behaving as it should. Got to get my meds working for better control before I do much else outside activity for the moment. Rain and windy conditions in the forecast for the next few days, anyway. :-(  :-(  :-(