I would note that when inspected the plane, the original bellcrank was rocking around. A lot. So I cut in and discovered that the bearing was shot. Really shot. It was a poor design originally and just didn't work all that well. Lateral pressure was put on the bearing and 300 or so flights pretty much did for it. So, I cut in from the bottom, removing a section of the fuselage and the planking on the wing over the bellcrank. cut the leadouts, cut out the bellcrank mount, disconnected the pushrod and managed to maneuver the bellcrank out. Akin to building a ship in a bottle as I cut a fairly small hole (see picture above). I used some music wire to thread back into the wing, attached new leadouts with Brett Buck style ends and drag them back through the wing and out the leadout slider. Getting the new bellcrank in along with the new mounts (with integral bearings) was nightmarish, but was eventually done. Attaching the leadout to the bellcrank wasn't too bad but rotating the bellcrank in the wing to reattach the pushrod was just not fun. Had to disconnect and reconnect it 4 times as I had to adjust the pushrod length (the bellcrank didn't go back exactly in the spot as the original - close but not exactly) to recenter the horns and bellcrank together. Then I reinforced the area , put in new ribs and bridged the edges of the sheeting, put in new sheeting and replaced the section of fuse that was removed.
Hopefully, I bridged the area well enough that the thing won't fly apart when I fly it. This was a really light plane and I don't want to add significant weight to it. Now I just have to grind down the filler put in the areas were I cut the fuse, modify the elevator horn to allow a bit more adjustment, refit the spinner area then I can finally get on to painting.
It was a great flying plane before (despite it's tracking issues which are hopefully now fixed).
Ain't life grand.