oloes/"list"

B PANCAKE · Post by **B PANCAKE** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 22:58

LOOKING AT MY DRAWINGS 4-621 GIVES AN ANGLE OF 29 DEGREES FOR THE AXEL STRUTS ON THE 7&11 AERONCAS. DRAWINGS 7-451 AND 3-434 ARE OBSOLETE AND ARE REPLACED BY DRAWING 7-807 AXEL STRUT ASSEMBLY. THESE STRUT ARE NOT HEAT TREATED AND THEY WILL BEND ON A BAD BAD LANDING, AND IF BENT MORE THAN .125 INCHES THEY SHOULD BE REPLACED.

bernie · Post by **bernie** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 10:37

thanks to all for the help. nice to hear from the expert. my struts at 30 and 33 degrees +-1 degree( instrument error). so one way or the other i'm 2 degress off somewhere. using some old high school trig i figured out that a 2 degree difference at the axle end of the struts would yeild approximately a 5-6" difference at the wing tip, which is what i have.

are the new axles from univair heat treated ? they are expensive, univair $600, spruce $590. buying used ones, unless they are "new surplus", probably isn''t the answer.

most likely end up replacing both when the $$$ are available.

bill, thanks for the expertise bernie

Tim Juhl · Post by **Tim Juhl** » Tue Sep 13, 2005 13:41

Bernie,
Are your axle struts just one constant diameter tube (until the end that attaches under the fuselage) or do they look like two tubes welded together?

I have one of the latter type in my "never throw anything away" collection.

Contact me off list if you want.

Tim

nowlen · Post by **nowlen** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 19:10

think i have found the problem. thanks much to bill pancake for some critical dimensions. seems there was a repair (no log book entry) to the left fuselage bracket where the upper part of axle attaches.
noticed some welding that wasn't original when compared to the right bracket.
turns out the left fuselage bracket is 3/16-1/4 of an inch further outboard than the right one. this puts the left gear further outboard and changes the angle of the oleo and A frame assembly.
both brackets are supposed to be 2 and 15/16 of an inch from the airplane centerline and centerline hole to hole is supposed to be 5 and 7/8 inches. i have 6 and 1/16.
not being an engineer i did some rough math and the 3/16" difference equated to about 2 degrees change in angle at the end of the axle. + 2 degrees at 12.5 '(wheel to wing tip) will give you a 5.5-6" drop in the height of the wing tip from the ground. also had 60 and 3/4 " between the centerline of the left lower axle to oleo attach point and the right. that dimension is supposed to be 58 and 5/8 +- 1/2 inch.

going to weld a new bracket at the right pkace and hopefully my leaning tower of chiefdom will sit straight. doing it at annual in nov and will post results

Ron Babos · Post by **Ron Babos** » Tue Oct 11, 2005 19:44

What's the deal with the axel struts. Some are welded from pieces and some like mine. are one dia and swaged down at the center attachment. I doubt either are heat treated, but I hear reference to this from time to time.
Ron

Nathan K. Hammond · Post by **Nathan K. Hammond** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 01:43

Nowlen, Glad to hear you got a reason and a fix. Any idea why they had to repair the bracket, and any other repairs on the 'Leaning Tower of Chiefdom?

nkh

nowlen · Post by **nowlen** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 09:23

there are no log entries for any repairs. have all the airframe and engine logs but there is a 18 year gap of entries in the airframe logs and no missing pages. suspect the plane was ground looped at some point. fuselage was rebuilt/recovered in 95 and wings(with new spars) in 2003. no mention of any repairs either time. having complete and original logs evidently doesn't mean anything. i should have caught it when i inspected the plane.

thanks for all the help
bernie

Mikek · Post by **Mikek** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 11:10

nowlen wrote:there are no log entries for any repairs. have all the airframe and engine logs but there is a 18 year gap of entries in the airframe logs and no missing pages. suspect the plane was ground looped at some point. fuselage was rebuilt/recovered in 95 and wings(with new spars) in 2003. no mention of any repairs either time. having complete and original logs evidently doesn't mean anything. i should have caught it when i inspected the plane.

thanks for all the help
bernie

Might try the FAA site or Aeronca.com for the link to the CD Records on
that one by N#. its only $5.00 last year. Something might have been
sent in during that gap in the book that was lost and then found?

MikeK

Post by **joea** » Wed Oct 12, 2005 20:06

Bernie,

Considering the time gap, my guess is that someone repaired the damage then before doing all the paperwork the plane/project was sold to someone else who had no idea and completed the restoration and thus no entry in the logbooks.

Glad you found the problem and its a relative easy fix.

Joe A

National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

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