The International Cessna 170 Association

1/4 drive flex sockets may reduce the number of choice words required. Not by many though.

Im having tailwheel troubles and trying to figure out the appropriate fix. I just recently bought this plane and it went through pre-buy and annual then flew it one time and had issues landing. I immediately went to check the tailwheel and noticed the tailwheel had large amounts of play and one of the detents are locking pretty hard which why I believed it almost cause me to ground loop. I asked the FBO mechanic to take a look and he sent these pictures show the bolt hole in the tailwheel is wallered out and needs a new tailwheel. The bigger concern is he found two brackets in the tailwheel bracket. I think this thread topic covers this with the appropriate part numbers from air repair, but Im not positive. I may need to go get better pics. These pictures are from the mechanic. Kind of annoyed this wasn't found in pre-buy or annual but oh well.

PS. Pictures seem to be rotated when uploaded for some reason?

Caleb,
Take a close look at the IPC to see how the tailwheel head is mounted. This is also diagramed by Scott here. Could it be the hole in your tailwheel head is "wallered out" because the bushing, Cessna p/n 442011-2 (Scott p/n 3241-2), is missing? If the $300 to replace the tailwheel head (Scott 3216) is too much your mechanic might consider an oversized bushing. Pay attention to the washers in this assembly too. It calls for a AN960-816 on top and smaller diameter AN960-716 washers next to the nut.

I think there should be a steel adapter between the tailwheel housing and the spring, the hole in that piece is likely ok. You’ll find the attach bolt done, worn and bent. I would just buy a new tailwheel assy, it’s cheap in comparison to going off the runway.
My opinion only, look for a new, new style fish mouth tailwheel bracket and the associated parts (lots and I mean lots of posts on this site on it, the search function is your friend) but I wouldn’t worry about the cracks right now. From the pics the cracks are not new and have been dealt with by stop drilling. This is old school work which works, but which requires specific checking at the annual. Think of it as a monitor (condition monitor) in which you set a time period between when you will inspect the cracks to see whether they have propagated further past the stop drill holes. Plan to replace the bracket when you get all the parts to limit your aircrafts downtime.
So replace the tailwheel, you might have to also change your mainspring as the hole in it might also be damaged and the spring itself maybe the reason the tail is wild, then check your main tires and the main wheel alignment and adjust as required. Plan to change the bracket at your convenience would be my advice.

Caleb, Gary, seems we were working on the post at almost the same time. Gary’s thoughts that parts are missing are spot on but the question is for how long and is there something else amiss in the tail ?
Looking back on Caleb’s posts, Caleb welcome to the 170 world. Welcome to the association.
Much has happened since these planes were built so you can appreciate approaches to maintenance have evolved somewhat. You’ll have to find someone who can work today and who can also mind-time travel to maintain your plane. You’ll have to learn to do the same. Right now It seems you also need a solid detective ( it’s a basic skill of any good mechanic).
Again Gary could be spot on or there maybe more to the story, your best approach in my opinion is get your airplane home and find the guy who really knows what’s going on, a guy who can save you cash and at the same time ensure you have a safe plane.

Thanks for the quick responses. Im definitely just going to buy a new tailwheel, just need to decided on which one. The cracks were my main concern. The mechanic was talking like it was extremely unsafe would be a major structural repair that needs major surgery. Im still a noob, but the mechanic was stating they would need to take off the vertical and horizontal stabilizers. This Air Repair bracket and parts seems like they should take care of it.

You might contact 170 assn member Jim Yates there in Edmond. He may be able to give you some assistance.

First there is a steel adapter that adapts the 3200 to the main spring. It is not shown in any picture. The wallowed out hole the tail wheel head should be bushed and the wallow would then be in the bushing, not necessarily the tail wheel head. A replacement bushing would be in order. If the wallow is through the bushing or there is no bushing, then the wallowed out hole should be drilled oversized and bushed to repair. Likely not a need for a whole new tail wheel assembly. At the worst just buy a new tail wheel head.

As for the cracks. Looks like you have the original steel steel wheel bracket. Kind of hard to tell whether those cracks are as life threatening as your mechanic seems to have made them out to be. Jim's is probably right, the stop drilling is likely an effective measure for the time being to be monitored. The fix is to replace this bracket with either an original steel bracket which Univair has, or the preferred method, replace the steel bracket with the later style fish mouth bracket (which Air Repair has been able to supply). Yes this replacement is lots of work. The tail feathers must come off.

See this post for help to the service kit which converts to the later aluminum tailwheel bracket (this will help insure you get the right parts):
http://cessna170.org/forums/viewtopic.p ... kit#p84173

What great information! I really appreciate all the responses. Excited to dig into my first project on the plane. Hopefully start building up some knowledge.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... PUBM3QycS_

Guys n Gals
Steve Pierce has put together a set of videos on youtube. The link is above. He is a great resource of knowledge. This will help all with cleaning rebuilding your tailwheel assembly.

I highly recommend you get the parts breakdown from Alaska bushwheel . These people make the baby bushwheel, Wonderful for off airport fun. THey make all the parts you will need for your scott 3200.

JP

I second Alaska Bushwheels. Their tailwheel parts are PMA'd, they have everything in stock, have excellent customer service, and the price will be equal to or less than Scott parts.

https://www.airframesalaska.com/3200-Se ... -3200a.htm

Part#3 is the bushng for the bolt.

If you just need a fish mouth bracket by itself, I have a new, undrilled bracket. Or, Air Repair sells them.

Reviving this thread because it looks like it's my turn to replace the spring retainer on my tailwheel assy.

It appears that SK70A52-4 was installed on my 170A (s/n 20054) sometime in the past with the retainer that has the tang (p/n 0510000-31). As others have noted, this is where I found the crack the other day after a good washing from Mother Nature at OSH. After speaking with Air Repair, he cross-referenced to p/n 0642152, which they have 150+ parts on hand (salvage). My understanding, from reading the documents on TIC170, is that 064152 does not have the tang.

Is this a suitable replacement for the original 0510000-31? I would like to be somewhat knowledgeable when I meet with my IA on Monday and begin tearing into this. Univair estimated 90 day lead-time for a new part. Website price was $750, but hadn't been updated in a few years, so they expected that to be a lowball estimate.

Are salvage parts considered owner-produced? And if I order from Air Repair, should I order 2 or 3 parts with the expectation that one or all may be unusable?

Thank you all!
Mike