Looking for control yokes

[NC36061]

Re: Looking for control yokes

It's not a Taylorcraft Banjo and I haven't seen one like it before. Anybody recognize it?

Hank, that's from an Aeronca Chief.

Dave

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Looking for control yokes

Cool! Any idea what year? There are a couple locally I will try to look at.
Thanks
Hank

Is there a Chief or Aeronca group like ours?

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Looking for control yokes

http://www.joea.com/phpBB2/

Yes there are a coupe of Aeronca club sites and several tribesman are members of them!

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Looking for control yokes

Looks like an interesting site. Can someone who is a member of both groups cross post my message with the pictures?
Hank

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Looking for control yokes

OK Hank.
A picture of your Chief yoke is posted on the NAA website under "Restoration."
I'll forward the info in there are any bites.

[blakecarl]

Re: Looking for control yokes

Hank - Thanks for the pictures of the bumpers. Our BC12-65 doesn't have them. Since there's no mark on the tube from sprocket hits, it appears that our situation is similar to yours. Someone in the past probably noted this and decided it wasn't worth the effort to have them in place.

I'll keep an eye out for a bumpers to have installed on our plane.

Blake

[wmfife]

Re: Looking for control yokes

I just re-chromed my Banjo wheels at a place that specializes in good quality chrome. I also did the control column/rod through the panel. The spokes were very rusty and the column pipe chrome was wore through to the brass. $560!!!!!! But boy, they are pretty now.......
Larry

Larry I need to know what was involved with this. Were the entire wheels chrome-plated or is there a way to remove the spokes? Wow $25 per spoke? Got to be a better way. Maybe if I do the sandblasting and polishing first...?

My yoke sprocket shafts are clean and smooth so leaving them alone. I want to do just the spokes in nickel plating and the handles in taupe-tinted epoxy resin to match the panel and improve the grip. I have taupe enamel, liquid epoxy resin and fresh bluing I may use on the center caps in place of chrome. Been studying factory photos.


( . . Would beat the cold, cement-gray iron handles and flaky chrome spokes on them now . . . )


Yours sound gorgeous. With some determination hopefully mine will be also.

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Looking for control yokes

Take a thin flat blade screw driver, insert under the hub cap at a spoke and just pry the cap up and off. It is not too tight, cut the safety wire through the 3 cap screws and remove them. (My safety wire was brass!) Now the wheel will slide off the shaft and under the shaft plate you will see, that with a bit of persuasion, the spokes can now be lifted up and out of the center. There is a little hook on the end inserted in the outer rim. The spokes will just slide out when you twist and find the proper angle. Most of the cost of the plating was the labor to clean and polish before plating. Like painting, any imperfections in the preparation will show up in the final product.
Larry

PS: Aaagh! I have lost one of my hub caps. I have been turning my shop upside down for months looking. I have come to the conclusion it must have been brushed off in to the the trash can last winter during a cleaning binge. Both mine were in great conditon and needed nothing but a good cleaning. Anyway if anyone finds/has one hub cap with "Taylorcraft" imbossed on it I would be very interested.

[wmfife]

Re: Looking for control yokes

Thanks, Larry! That's a relief to know as I have many tools for polishing and finishing small things like that. Flaky as these are now they should not be more of a challenge than my tail brace rods were. (And probably in better shape than those bottom ones!)

It all sounds easy enough. I have to go out to the hangar tonight or tomorrow anyway to check on that trap I set. I found rat poo on my seat sling! (And you think the city is going to help? After raising my T-hangar rent? Psh!)

Aarrgh! Is right! Larry I do sympathize and my hat is off to Murphy! He was so ahead of his time. Seems the likelihood of a thing being irretrievably lost is directly proportional to its importance. (...ask me about those two missing crankcase-cover bolts..! Have swept every corner of the hangar twenty times. Where on earth could they be??)
...Uh, oh... ...(*Censored*)

But among my many workbench tools is some casting resin and release compound. I can copy nearly anything and duplicate it in JB Weld if need be. Maybe if I or somebody can make you a good solid female mold you can get a shop to pound you a new hub cover out of sheet brass. Or even stamp it out, if a two-part mold is used and chrome it to match the other one.

This stuff is cheap. I'm about to try using some to press out dimples in one of my postwar stamped cowl grills using the aftermarket one as a master. Just have to get the right amount of heat going to make it mash out right..

Will let you know how it goes. Cause as they say -
"Where there's a way - there's Will!"

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Looking for control yokes

After some LOOOONG searching I found out the 41 Banjo centers were prewar freeze plugs for old tractors (go figure). You need the dome top ones. I haven't found them yet, but they were in an old catalog and were just like mine. The engraver I found (whole different story) has the equipment and pattern to put the logo on a curved surface.
Hank

[Larry Lyons]

Re: Looking for control yokes

Really! Well a few years ago I found the domed frost plugs at National Aviation Parts Assoc. Ask to look in the marine catalog. I am going to that very thing this week! Installing the big ones was a whole other story.
Larry