Yokes: Pretzels vs. Cast?

[Stumpy]

Just curious about folk's general preferences for post-war machines...I have a set of cast yokes in nominal condition installed now. Just finishing a cleanup on a set of pretzels...look pretty darn good after 2 hours of removing 70 years of gunk and refreshing with "mothers back-to-black," attached shafts are in good shape, and my smallish hands like the feel of the yokes.

On a related matter, made minor efforts to remove one pretzel from the shaft...it didn't seem to want to cooperate, so I decided to just leave them and concentrate on clean-up instead. One is drilled for the universal joint bolt just off the horizontal, the other just off the vertical. Soooo...looking for the simplest, trouble-free way to swap for the cast yokes (besides, one of my existing shafts has a slight bend in it).
My little brain has considered this for a few moments....looks like the easiest option is to remove the current yoke/shaft assemblies at the universal joint, then install the pretzels and shafts. Then I figured on putting locks on the ailerons, popping the chain clips and rolling the "new" yokes level one at a time, and putting the chains back on the sprockets.
I usually opt for the KISS method. Is my logic flawed this time? Hate to bugger something that ain't broke, and the pretzels and shafts are solid in their present assembled state. What say ye?

[mike lutz]

Re: Yokes: Pretzels vs. Cast?

Stumpy,the left hand sprocket is the one that has the pin in it to limit the aileron travel.You will not want to change the timing on that one,or you will have more ail. travel in one direction than the other.You can change the timing on the pass. side however with no problems.

[Stumpy]

Re: Yokes: Pretzels vs. Cast?

Thanks Mike, I also remembered that little fact a couple of hours after posting...a Homer Simpson moment. ;-) I'd end up with a "Nascar T-craft..."...and I already wander around in circles enough.

[mike lutz]

Re: Yokes: Pretzels vs. Cast?

Stumpy,A little off topic and useless information,41 plus years ago when I got my T-craft,a old timer told me if I rolled it to use the right hand wheel,and when the stops on the left wheel hit the stop,twist the right wheel firmly and get the backlash out of the cables and it would roll slightly faster.I do think it was ever-so slightly faster.That was back in my younger years .I haven't done much with the old bird anymore because its 74 yrs. old.I have a Acrosport II for aerobatics and don't think these old airplanes should be flown like that anymore.I have the round wheels as original in my 40 T-craft.

[M Towsley]

Re: Yokes: Pretzels vs. Cast?

Stumpy,

There is a lot of info on this if you search. Here is some stuff I posted, (I like the pretzel yokes and the kit to replace the hub and top plastic is great).

http://vb.taylorcraft.org/showthread.php?8361-Pictures-of-my-new-pretzel-yokes&highlight=pretzel+yokes

[Stumpy]

Re: Yokes: Pretzels vs. Cast?

Mike,
Yeah, I'm not real keen on yankin' and bankin' the old girl...at 68 she deserves softer hands me thinks.

Marty,
I looked at the posting with the new hub kit...very nice, will be getting a pair. Mine are a bit tweaked....but the cleaned-up pretzels are in and I do like them better than the cast ones.
Of course, it's now something of a temporary moot point...just starting to climb out this evening and she started cutting out bad...smoothed out around 1900 plus revs...just enough power to safely execute the time-honored 180 degree turn and put her back down. Slight tailwind landing better than risking the pattern over a few houses and our fairgrounds. I'm gonna make an educated guess at not enough fuel getting there at full power. Last fall I had that happen on the ground dialing a few things in with only 3 gallons in the tank...a couple of other local T's had had that issue in the past (all three of us have larger mains-maybe affects fuel head on the ground???), and they both said put more fuel in...with six gallons in her it stopped happening... now I wasn't satisfied with that solution but it seemed to work. Today I had 8 gallons in the nose. Looks like the carb will be coming off tomorrow after checking a couple other unlikely possibilities. If I could find an affordable Marvel Schebler it would be a temptation.