Corrosion ate my Wheels

[AJ85WA]

Hey guys

I pulled apart my wheels today to repack the bearing grease and inspect everything before mounting them to the gear. The previous owner had assembled them probably like 8 years ago and must have left them in a damp area.

I cleaned up all the paint with a wire brush in the drill and these are the issues i am faced with. Most of the corrosion is like the first picture, minor surface damage, but on the second picture it has almost gone all the way through.

What are the best ways to repair this?
Should I clean it up and weld over it? Is it ok to paint over the old surface damage like in picture 1?

Thanks in advance for the help.
AJ

[Mtbguy]

It looks deep, but how much metal is on the other side of it. (What I mean is is there a sufficient thickness of material under the pitting?) I bought an older Cessna that had been parked in snowy area a few years ago, it had some pitting like this, we cleaned it, filled in pits with JB Weld epoxy and repainted, it worked fine until I eventually bought newer wheel to keep old one as a spare.

It wouldn't hurt to spin balance it (take to a motorcycle shop if you don't have equipment) since it might be unbalanced after repairs.

[JonJay]

Those are trash in my opinion.
I am pretty familiar with Parkers techinical data but I can not recall seeing anything in regard to corrosion limits. The airframe manuals I am familiar with cover corrosion only in general terms for different parts of the structure and usually call it out terms of percentage or imperical values in regard to how much loss of material is acceptable. Of course, we are talking the certified world here and they are very conservative.
You may very well ride these wheels out for the life of your airframe, but I personally would not use them and there is no practical repair for a wheel with this kind of damage that I am aware of.

[Walt]

Junk, you cannot weld corrosion damage

[longranger]

They look like future lamp bases to me (I have some old engine cylinders awaiting that fate). No way I'd put those on a flying airplane.

"JB Weld". Amazing.

[Pat Stewart]

Originally Posted by Walt

Junk, you cannot weld corrosion damage

Walt is correct, Scrap and buy new, sorry but better than a wheel failure at a high speed, that could really ruin your day.

Pat

[turbo]

sometimes you wonder what really happen? could there be any corrosion in other places too? looks unusual to me. good luck.

[JonJay]

By the way AJ, good job on the decision to dissassemble the prior builders work and inspect for yourself. Double check your bearings and races to insure they are not corroded as well.

I can not remember why I split my wheels at the first CI, to replace tubes to airstops, or something, but I noticed a funny yellow powder and some light corrosion on the inside of one of the wheels, kind of running along a meandering line. It was relatively minor and cleaned up just fine but I had no idea what could have caused it.
Later it occured to me that during phase I, without wheel pants, my tire must have caught the interest of someones dog. I was still surprised how easily the wheel had corroded with only one application of said dog.

[az_gila]

Are the Cleveland wheel halves magnesium?