Replacing the rudder-break pedal tension springs

[JSwift]

Turns out I broke one of these. My first indication was that with no feet on the pedals the airplane’s nose was skewed right approximately one ball width in level flight. Also when parked on the ground the rudder was off to the right with the tailwheel centered. Finally the slack left rudder pedal and the sound of the cable slapping the floor of the fuselage got my attention during a careful inspection.

It took me a while to locate the cause of these symptoms. The good news is all the other attachment points, fairleeds and pulleys are in fine shape. After more than a couple hours with my flashlight and inspection mirror I noticed there was a spring on the right actuator/ cable attach point up in the nose and sure enough on the left actuator there was the broken spring. These springs don’t show on the rudder system illustration in the IPC but they do show a few pages prior where there is an illustration of the break pedal and cylinder system.

My question is has any one replaced these and what’s the best way to get access in the area?

94D is rollling into the big hangar on Friday for her annual and I’d like to have some clues on how to proceed. In the mean time I plan to procure both the left and right springs for balance sake. I also don’t want to have to open this area again soon.

Thanks!

[DaveF]

Here you go, everything you need to know! Read it all, there's good info in there.

http://cessna170.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7739

[JSwift]

Dave,

Thanks exactly what I needed. I was pretty sure there was some good “gouge” on this forum for most any repair. Cheers!

[dstates]

Thanks for sharing this... It perfectly describes what I just started seeing with my rudder pedals. Now I know where to look when I'm at the hangar tonight.

This site is great!

[DaveF]

This site is great!

You mean, "This Association"!

[dstates]

This site is great!

You mean, "This Association"!

You are 100% correct!

[dstates]

I definitely had a broken spring...

[DaveF]

Looks nice and clean in there!

While you're there, check those two nuts (in line with the circular hole) for tightness. They hold the master cylinder attach bracket on the other side of the bulkhead. If they come loose the bracket will flop around and eventually break. They were loose on my airplane.

[dstates]

I got my broken rudder return spring replaced. I am super appreciative of this forum and the members for helping me find it and fix it. When I first grabbed the new spring and tried to reach in and even hook one end of it by hand I realized how hard this was going to be. I ended up getting it installed in less than 30 minutes even after dropping it a couple times. Below are a few pictures of my installation method that seemed to work well so I thought I would share in case it helps someone else in the future.

I was able to reach in from the access hole in the belly with the spring held by a pair of needle nose pliers and get the front end of the spring hooked. You can see it half installed in this picture I took from the pilots rudder pedal area.

I wasn't able to grab the spring to stretch it with any tools to get it to reach the pedal arm. I ended up fishing a loop of safety wire through the tunnel access hole and grabbing the hook end of the spring. I was then able to pull the safety wire to stretch the spring.

Then I needed to bend the spring sideways in order to get the hook end to go into the hole in the pedal arm. I used another piece of safety wire from the hole in the RH side of the tunnel and looped it around the body of the spring. Then I could pull it to the right (as shown with the red drawn lines in the picture below). When I pulled to the right and kept tension to the rear with the two pieces of safety wire it was fairly easy to get the hook to line up and go into the hole in the pedal arm. Then I just pulled on one end of the safety wire and pulled it back out of the spring.

Hope this helps someone else in the future. I'm guessing I'll get to do it again sometime with the RH spring...

[c170b53]

Ready for more?
Looks like you need to remove the kick panel between the pedals, (easy to do) clean the rudder pedal shafts, inspect everything and then lubricate. May not have been done for awhile.