Do you have an ABI tail wheel? does it shimmy?

How to keep the Cessna 170 flying and airworthy.

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Cameggs
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu May 08, 2014 4:58 am

Do you have an ABI tail wheel? does it shimmy?

Post by Cameggs »

Hey guys,

Ive been meaning to post about this for a while. I bought an Alaska bush wheel 3200 tail wheel (Scott 3200 copy). It shimmied since day one. I did bunch of reading and figured I needed a new tail wheel spring, I then used the Scott install instructions to align the tail wheel. With all the angles set up and the new spring it was better, however it still shimmied often.

I took the tailwheel apart one day and checked the Paul, and all the components. everything seemed to be ok. while reassembling the tail wheel I noticed that the tire didn't seem to turn true. I removed the tire off the wheel and spun the wheel and found that the wheel wasn't true. it turns out that the castings for the tail wheel were done poorly. one half the wheel where the tire sat had a complete different angle then the opposite side, the tire wasn't able to seat correctly.

I took an old axle and tightened it down onto the bearings. I then put the wheel in the lathe while grabbing onto the axle. I machined the wheel on the lathe to be the same on both sides and to be 100% round and true to the axle. Since then I have never had the shimmy.

hope this helps for the Mistry tail wheel shimmy!!

Long story short, the ABI copy is a good tail wheel for the cost. I would buy another one however I would check the quality of the wheel it self before installing it.
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GAHorn
Posts: 20967
Joined: Fri Apr 12, 2002 8:45 pm

Re: Do you have an ABI tail wheel? does it shimmy?

Post by GAHorn »

Why didn't you have ABW replace the wheel? ... and, (some silly smart-A will likely ask)... what basis of approval did you use to alter the wheel?
Did you consider filing a Defect-Report?
'53 B-model N146YS SN:25713
50th Anniversary of Flight Model. Winner-Best Original 170B, 100th Anniversary of Flight Convention.
An originality nut (mostly) for the right reasons. ;)
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