Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

[shipljl]

When I tried to install my new rear lift struts from Wag Aero and they didn't fit. The adjustment tubes on the outboard ends are set at a different angle than my originals. Can anyone tell me if the pre-war rear struts are different from the post-war? (Mine is a 41 deluxe). Is there a drawing out there that I can give to Wag Aero?

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

I had the same problem. I could never find a drawing saying so, but there are definatly two different angles. The Alaska strut guys had the dimensions and WAG re-did mine. They were good to work with , but it did take some time to work out. DO NOT TWIST THE STRUTS TO MAKE THEM FIT!!! Something will HAVE to break! Get the holes fixed by WAG.
Hank

By the way, mise was also a 41 Deluxe. Wonder why they are the different ones?

[Guest]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

Check this out it may help you.

http://www.airframesalaska.com/tcraftangle.pdf

Dave

[Dick Smith]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

Please note that the above link to Airframes Alaska (re: the different angles that they encountered on Taylorcraft struts) is speaking to the FRONT lift struts rather than the rear. The first entry in this thread referred to misalignment on REAR struts. In the Airframes Alaska link above, they state that the rear strut angles were not a problem as far as they observed and didn't need to be checked. Perhaps we are beginning to hone in on where the angle problem derived from...has anyone compared (side by side) both front and rear struts on the planes built in 1941 with those on 1946 era planes? The yellow strut pictured in the Airframes Alaska link is one of my original, unsealed front struts...Airframes AK built me a new set of sealed struts.(fronts and rears). They fit my 1947 BC12D just fine. Maybe I'm just confusing things, but until you've fought your way through this issue, you can experience a lot of worry, grief and $. Dick

[Guest]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

Good catch Dick, thanks.

I think I have a 4 or five of each strut I will take some side by side pictures this week for comparison.

Dave

[shipljl]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

Does anyone have any old, potentially good rear prewar struts? Wag Aero only has one authorized design which I believe is post war and won't fit on my 1941. They are having difficulty since they can only sell PMA parts and mine would be a modification to the PMA design.

Also, If there is a drawing for the prewar struts, they think they could use that to get authorization. Anyone have a prewar strut drawing?

[ajfriz]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

I have my originals if you want to come by and look at them.

[Ray36048]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

Does anyone know why? My struts are from Univair, they only have one style for Taylorcraft. I have not tried them, but I have a pre war fuse (41 delux) and post war wings. I am a little concerned by all this talk about 2 different strut angles.

If the spar spacing is the same and the distance from the fuse to the strut fittings are the same, why are there different angles? Did Taylorcraft move the location of the fuse
attach point after the war?

[Guest]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

Ray,

Doesn't make any sense does it?

It seems to happen regardless though.

I toyed with a couple explanations but they turned out to be wrong.

Dave

[shipljl]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

That' the only explanation I can think of. I only replaced my rear struts and have fit problems. Others are complaining of the new front struts not fitting. If they moved the attach fitting, neither front or rear would have proper alignment.

[shipljl]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

Question,
Could I have Wag Aero repair my old struts by replacing the full length of streamlined tubing, still using the end pieces and have it be a repair instead of a PMA part? How much of the original part must be present to call it a repair?

[Guest]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

Any piece of the original makes it a repair.

But the repair alone won't solve the AD issue as you probably know. You would have to get them to seal them.

The issue may be that Wag Aero is not authorized to do that repair. They are arepir station so they have limits that your A & P does not have.

Dave

[astjp2]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

They are authorized to repair. I don't see how there are this many problems? The attach points are in the same location. So unless the angle of incidence is causing this difference, I don't see how there are this many problems unless its a tolerance stack up..... Tim

Any piece of the original makes it a repair.

But the repair alone won't solve the AD issue as you probably know. You would have to get them to seal them.

The issue may be that Wag Aero is not authorized to do that repair. They are arepir station so they have limits that your A & P does not have.

Dave

[Guest]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

I took out 4 rear struts from my pile and photographed them side by side and then the pre wars on top of the post wars. They all look the same to me. The pre wars are real skinny tubing.

I also took out some front struts and photo graphed them side by side. You can see the 6 degree angle difference on some of them. The brown one and the blue ones are the ones with a shallow angle.

I noticed this; the ones with the big angle feel like the strut material is buckled up on the aft side of the end fitting. This suggests to me that it is possible that the angle difference is due to damage that bent the tip fitting. BTW- the struts that I photographed do show signs of damaged but I has not analyzed it.

Dave

[astjp2]

Re: Prewar rear liftstrut misalignment

So why is there a 6* differences between the struts? How much did the fuselages change or was it a change in the strut attach fittings in the wings? The only differences I have found was the angle of incidence on the wing attach fittings. Tim