Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

[fearofpavement]

I will be going with a trailer to Louisiana to disassemble Yellow Duck and bring it back here to Georgia for repairs. I have never taken apart a Taylorcraft to trailer it (BC-12D) and wondered if there was anything special toolwise that I should bring with me for disassembly? I will have stuff to lift, support, cushion, sling, label, tie down, and so forth so what I am looking for is advice as to whether there is some kind of special something or other that a typical A&P's toolbox wouldn't contain that I will need to get the wings and tail off? I can't imagine what it would be but that is why I am asking before I load up... Please don't mention Sawzall and cutting torch as I already have those loaded...

[mhorowit]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

A good penetrating fluid
Blocks of wood cut in shape of wedges
Plumber's wrench
12 bolts, 1/4" long, with the grip of the bolt 4" ( that is , 4" of no thread)
- cut off the thread and round the tip. When you remove the wing attach bolts, the wing strut bolts and the strut fuselage bolts, replace them with these 'drifts'. Then when it come time to remove the wing, folks arn't waiting while you discover the bolts have cotter pins in them and you need to do whatever while the two other persons are yelling at you to hurry.

Bubble wrap as padding.

Learn how the elevator disconnects and have someone support it while you remove it.

Lable the flying wires as they come off.

Make three checks to insure nothing beside the wing attach bolts is connecting the wings to the body.

Search this forum for removing wings; I did this about three months ago. Lots of other suggestions. - MIke


.

[mhorowit]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

12 bolts, 1/4" long, .

Should read 1/" dia. - Mike

[mhorowit]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Oh, and a lawnchair.

[Marv]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Can't you just put a landing gear on it and fly it home? If i were going to haul it, i would just put locks on the rudder and elevaters, and leave them on. I hauled a Stinson 108-3 from North Carolina to Ohio this way and did not damage it and had it back flying in a week and it hadnt been flown for 5 years and all the valves were stuck. Marv

[crispy critter]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

You can haul it with the tail surfaces on if you are careful but if they will come off easy then I would remove them to keep from being over width.As for the wings and struts...I know Mike went into great detail on many different size bolts but a common set of long draw pins(long,smooth,tapered punch's that can be found at any hardware store,Lowes,or Wal-Mart for less then 20 bucks) work great and make it so easy.
When disconnecting the aileron cables do it from inside the fuslage and done attempt to remove them from the bellcrank at the wing.It is so much easier to leave the ailerons installed unless you are going to disassemble the wings for recover.If you get down there and need advice feel free to call me on my cell and I'll walk you through your problem(Lee has all my numbers or you can private message me for my numbers before you leave).
Hope this helps.

[fearofpavement]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Thanks for all the input so far, we considered putting another gear on it and flying it but the front gear attach is bent and it has a small tear in the gusset to the fuselage tubing and I don't believe it can be properly repaired without removing the boot cowl to get some working room to straighten and re-weld it. This is really not a project to do on the ramp thus the trailer thing. We only want to disassemble it enough to safely transport it so won't take anything off the plane that doesn't need to come off (except the prop)
I think the tail is a bit wide for a 600 mile trip without taking off at least one side. I'll measure our BC-12D that we have here to confirm the widths.

What are the wood wedges for and how large and thick should they be? I searched the forum archives but found no reference to using them. Maybe didn't look in the correct place?

I have a good stock of drift pins so will bring those in addition to assorted long bolts for pins.

Usually we carry wings in slings made of carpet pieces but I haven't transported fabric covered wings this way, are the leading edges stiff enough to handle the miles if we support them on edge in a couple of slings or should we try to carry them flat? (the vortex generators are going to complicate things.)
Thanks.

[N96337]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

I told Mike how I did mine in an earlier post... I took the wings off and faced them bottom to bottom, then ran short metal tubes, between the strut attach points with the strut attach bolts through them, both front and back, and had two longer metal tubes that went through both wing spar attach points with the attach bolts run through them. This held the wings apart, and rigid, then I put them on top of ski racks that were padded (placing the bar between two ribs) and strapped the front down gently (only tight enough to keep them from moving while underway). The wings were facing with the tips forward. The metal that passed through the spar attach points had a "tee" on the end, and that was attached to the rear of my canopy on my pickup... then I hauled the fueslage behind, facing forward (pulls MUCH easier that way, than facing rearward, and is much more stable!!). It rode just fine this way over 600 miles. See the attached pic.
JH

[fearofpavement]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

what kind of speeds did you drive with this configuration? Also, I am a bit unclear as to how you hooked the wings together with the tubing and bolts, do you have any photos of this?
thanks.

[mhorowit]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

What are the wood wedges for and how large and thick should they be? I searched the forum archives but found no reference to using them. Maybe didn't look in the correct place?.

For removing the horiz. stabs. Mine were rusted firmly to their respective posts.
I put the wedges between a member of the stab and the fuse and used that as a pivot point. 2x4 cut at 30-45*.

IF they are rusted in place they are a bear to remove. After you try everything you can think of, use a hacksaw to make a shallow slot in the stab where it is mounted on that post. That will give you some movement to remove the forward edge of the stab, which in turn will give you a lever arm. Of course you will have to repair the portion you hacksawed. You might not run into this nightmare.

[crispy critter]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

The wooden wedges are in case the stablizers won't come off very easy,use them to tap between the stab and longeron.
The wing slings will work if you are very careful,use at least 4 sling straps to spread the load more evenly and make sure each strap is supporting a full length rib.....or haul them flat if you can.

[mulwyk]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

My project came home on a car trailer with the wings standing on their leading edges either side of the fuselage. 1000+ miles

Bob

[high time cub]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Oh, and a lawnchair.

Art Deco Classic..... http://www.viktorschreckengost.org/G...view/66/350/42

[VictorBravo]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

Since the landing gear is bent anyway, remove the bent side landing gear, leave the good landing gear on it, and transport the fuselage at a 45 degree "roll" angle. This allows you to not have to remove the tail wires, the stabilizer, the elevator, etc etc.

Remove the cowlings and put them in boxes inside the car. This will allow you to use the engine mount/firewall junction as a tiedown for your straps. It also allows you to raise the tail a few feet, so the tail (and fuselage) can be rotated 45 degrees for trailer width, and also allow the wings to be laid down on the floor with LOTS of padding, blankets, etc.

[mhorowit]

Re: Anything special required to disassemble a T-craft?

South Louisana in the summer. Hmmmmmm.
Mosquito repellant?