Tip: Tail wheel Spring Attach Points

Here's a little tip that I got from Jay Pratt - probably something many people already know, but it was something that I had missed! A few weeks back, jay was looking at the Val, and pointed out a potential problem - I had used Van's little teardrop shaped clips to connect the tail wheel chains directly to holes in the rudder horn.

"Paul, what are you going to do when those clips pull all the way through the edge of the horn?" he asked inocently...Sure enough, the holes were already slightly elongated! Jay suggested AN eye bolts, so I ordered a couple of them from ACS, drilled the holes out for the AN3 shanks, and reconnected the chains to the eye bolts. I have never really liked the little clips either - in fact, I had one pop off on an early landing - so I replaced them with stainless steel sailboat clevises. (Now the weakest link is truly the screen-door chains themselves!)

Seems like a good idea. Now what about the rudder cable attach? I've always thought that these should have some sort of bushing.

OK Paul what is "ACS" I did a google search and came up with everything but what I wanted. I do like the eye bolt concept. I also went with the Van's upgraded springs and cables when I installed the Aviation Products tailwheel. What a great improvement in safety on the ground. Thanks Jack

Jack,
ACS is Aircraft Spruce.

Paul,
Now if you add "eye" bolts to the top pf the tail wheel arm the spring will be almost horizontal and pulling straighter.

check 6 said:

OK Paul what is "ACS" I did a google search and came up with everything but what I wanted.

Click to expand...

Sorry Jack...."AirCraftSpruce".....I didn't want to start another mega-thread about AN quality hardware.....

I ordered AN41B-4A eye bolts by the way - fit perfectly!

Paul

Thanks, don't know why I had the senior moment , must be Monday

Chains?

Not to change the topic of the thread, but I couldn't wait to rid of my chains and install a Jantz tail link steering and now have the Silver Bullet version.
I love it, very clean looking and works just fine.
I did use the AN eye bolts to connect the rudder cables though.
Just my 2 cents.

Speaking of tailwheels.....

Has anyone (other than me) thought that this might become a problem? Rain, washing, and such. It ain't waterproof back there, and this is steel.......

An41B > AN42B [For Ironflight]

Paul (Dye) - in your message below you did mean to type AN42B-4A? I dont want to order the wrong thing and get it all the way to the UK. I cant find a 41b.

Thanks,

Good catch Steve - looks like I must have typoed it....very common for me!

Paul

Paul, many thanks! Steve.

Paul,

I also put an eye-Bolt on the TW arm. This does two things, first it raises the tail spring a little so it feels more direct because of the reduced angle and second, it is easy to replace should it start to wear.

Here's a picture from my web site:

Bill, is that an AN115-21 shackle also?

Also, I cant be sure from the picture. Is the eyebolt bolted up firm, or allowed to swivle with a cotter pin?

Thanks, Steve.

Just reporting in...

With 250 hours on the plane, the eye bolts on the bottom of the rudder horn are showing noticable wear and will be replaced. Better a $4 part than rebuilding the rudder bottom. The eye bolts and shackles on the tail wheel stearing arm look fine.

Steve Sampson said:

Bill, is that an AN115-21 shackle also?

Also, I cant be sure from the picture. Is the eyebolt bolted up firm, or allowed to swivle with a cotter pin?

Thanks, Steve.

Click to expand...

Steve,

I just found your question when I dug up this old thread. Here is a list of parts I used.

Eye Bold Drilled AN42B-5, Cable Shackles AN115-21, Bolt AN3-6 (Drilled shank), Washer AN960-10, Castle nut AN310-3, Cotter pins as needed.

The eye bolts are held in place with an AN3 nyloc nut and torqued to spec. The bolts holding the shackle in place are secured with castle nuts, allowing the shackle to move up and down. The shackle will allow the spring to move left and right.

I did not use a shackle on the eye bolt inserted on the rudder bottom. The steel chain clip worked well enough. It is this eye bolt that is starting to show some signs of wear.

The builder of my RV-8 used the eye-bolts. However, on a recent landing, one of the tailwheel spring clips took a holiday to some private and secluded island, with no forwarding address.

Following Paul's lead, I replaced the absent clip and its partner with 3/16" D shackles.