Sruts

[Peter Collin]

Does any of you have struts (wing) with repairs on them or struts that are slightly bent?

Peter

[O.Taylor]

Re: Sruts

I have one on da plane, it went through a fence in the mid 50's. O.T.

[Guest]

Re: Sruts

Mine have repairs.

[astjp2]

Re: Sruts

Most do, that is why 43.13 has a good repair procedure for them. If they are bent, you might be able to heat one side to get it to straighten, I watched a guy do it to some longerons and a few different braces in a pacer one time. Tim

[Peter Collin]

Re: Sruts

The reason I'm asking is, my right front strut has a small kink in it, which we can repair with a sleve as per 43.13. The right rear strut has a bow in it, front to back, somebody must have pushed on it at some time. My IA says repair the front strut and leave the bowed rear strut like it is, many T-Crafts have bent and repaired struts. He says get it flying then you can strart changing and fixing things like the struts, especially since it's not damage that will compromise strucural strengh, that is after the front strut has been repaired. I will talk to him about heating up the rear strut.
It's just a mind thing with me, it may bother me when I look at the struts knowing that they are not perfect, but I just as soon not spend 2k on new struts right now. I guess you have to buy two front struts even if you only have to change one just get them exactly the same length. The rear ones are adjustable so that is not an issue.
Thanks for listening.

Peter

[Dano"T"]

Re: Sruts

The rear struts on many planes that have been on skis are bowed ....skiplanes get stuck sometimes....and pushing on the struts bends em a little.

[N96337]

Re: Sruts

Peter, the thing to remember about a repair like that is that it's most likely much stronger (more metal, weld, etc.) than the original.... it may not look as pretty, but if done anywhere near correct, it's just fine. I once did an annual on a PA-11 and noticed a "bulge" in the forward strut... upon closer look, they'd done a sleeve repair, but then put bondo all over it, to try to hide it. Luckily, we found it before there was any moisture trapped, and stripped the bondo off, then repainted, and it's still flying happily.
JH

[1938BF50]

Re: Sruts

20407 has sleeve repairs on both RH struts. Logs show "taxied into fence post" in 1945. I am leaving them as I think they add to the history of the plane. As stated in previous posts the sleeves if done correctly are far stronger than the parent cross section. The more I get into this plane the more I want to call her "Patches". She has plenty of scars.

[ClipWing_T]

Re: Sruts

I would like to know just how many T-Crafts have been lost due to strut failures . I would be more worried about cracked spars and rotten wood
in the wood wing L-2 's than i would a repaired strut ! We had a "D" model
with aluminum wings with reapired struts on both sides and we looped and
rolled and never even thought about it ! (sure i was young and stupid now
I am old and stupid ! lol).........I had a buddy killed in a J-3 cub when the
strut fork pulled from the threads on his restored Cub , So i KNOW there is
some concern ........But apples and oranges when talking about Cubs and
T-Crafts IMO . Mr Taylor made a strong little bird didn't he? Fly it and stop
looking at that repaired strut ! lol....if it is solid metal and good welds is probably stronger than before. Like I asked : How many t-crafts have been lost due to repaired struts or even faulty ones ??

[astjp2]

Re: Sruts

I have not heard of an inflight structural failure of the struts, if there had been, then there would be the AD like the Piper's have. One thing about struts, they are in TENSION when flying and COMPRESSION when on the ground. If you have to worry about snow load, just keep them clear and you should not have any problems with the bowed one. You could also try and giving the bowed one a little shove to straighten it some. The tubing will flex some. I used a 6' piece of pipe to fix my wheel alignment by putting it over the axle and forcing it so it was not toe out. Good luck Tim

[tawadc95]

Re: Sruts

Tim,
How did the pipe trick work? I have some toe in on the right side and was going to fix it the same way. You just eyeball it into place?
Chris

[astjp2]

Re: Sruts

I made a fixture that mounted on the outer bearing race that had a piece of 1" square tubing that was 36" long. I centered the tubing and mounted it on my fixture. The fixture was a piece of 1" thick aluminum and aobut 4"x6" and had a 3/4" hole drilled on through it. I made 2 of them and measured across the front and back to see if it was toe in or out. I then compared the back to the bolt in the tail wheel spring. I had the airplane with the wheels off and mounted on jack stands and the airplane chained down so I would not knock it off of the stands. I put a piece of pipe over the axle and gave it a slight shove, doing just a little at a time until I had 1/8" toe in @ 18 inches foreward of the axle. I then changed out the bolts in the landing gear to take out any slop or any damage that might have occured to the bolts. I can probably make a drawing if need be. Let me know. Tim

[Peter Collin]

Re: Sruts

Thanks for the counseling I feel much betternow

Peter

[matsuthunder200]

Re: Sruts

I just bought a brand new rear strut and had the front strut repaird. the rear strut cost around 570.00 and the repair was only 150 on the front strut.

[astjp2]

Re: Sruts

Peter, who did your repair? Airframes INC?