Take the nut off and the control arms for the tailwheel steering.
Be careful! At this point when you pull the tailwheel off there is a "square pin" with a spring. That spring is probably all caked up with dirt and grime so the spring amd pin may be stuck.
Just when you think it is stuck and you are holding it in your hand looking at it "BONG"!!! The spring pops out and you lost it!
Clean it up, relube and carefully put it back together so as not to over tighten the nut...or you will still have a non locking tailwheel.
John had it pefectly correct. I was able to get all that done quite uneventfully because that pin was lodged in place with gunk. Before I put it all together, since I was getting metal shavings out of my bearings while I cleaned the thing, I decided to replace the bearings before putting the wheel back on. I also rotated the wheel 180? due to slightly uneven wear. The bearings are available for $3 ea from Van's. Under "Airframe Maintenance."
http://vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/store.cgi?ident=1466617785-236-261&browse=am They really gouge you on the TWELVE DOLLAR shipping, though!
I had never done this before so my A&P friend was gracious enough to show me how. We tapped out the old bearings with a drift and hammer.
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Holding those old bearings in my hand I sure was glad I decided to replace them. They were in pretty dire shape! They're probably original or older. Maybe you can confirm this, Bruce...? The airplane has a little under 300 hours on it now.
Also having that wheel hub completely open, I can 100% verify what Sam said.
The zerk does not grease the bearings, it merely fills up the hub...
. My advice to anyone contemplating using it is never to do it! It is an utterly and completely useless grease zerk. You don't want your wheel hub full of grease. It won't even eventually make its way to the bearings since they're sealed.
So after that, we tapped the new bearings in, rotated the tire, and slapped it all back together. Easy as that!
Does anyone know how much exactly to torque that 3/4 in nut? I forgot John's warning when I was reassembling it and cranked that thing down pretty hard [seems like an important component to me - I'm pretty surprised it doesn't have a cotter pin] but I don't seem to have any ill effects. Functions beautifully now!