The International Cessna 170 Association

Just finished my annual and my Ame. told me both my aileron push pull rods had slight bends in them ,they look all most identical . The parts book I have is for a b model and the rods have no bends ,does anyone know if the rag wing used a different rod or why these ones I have would be curved or bent a bit , I have owned the plane 14years and first mech to mention this , and the plane flys with no issues at all cheers Rob

The '48 rag wing uses completely different parts that a B model. Second, you can not really rely on the illustration in a IPC to accurately depict what a part should look like.

Take a picture of your part and post it. Others can then compare yours to theirs. They are probably all bent.

Rob,
Hopefully Dan Wood will chime in here.

While I agree with Bruce that the IPC is not the place to determine what a part should look like, it is interesting to see that fig. 5 and fig. 9 in the 170 IPC show a slight bend in the aileron push-pull rod. Wouldn't it be easier for the illustrator to draw straight rods if in fact they were straight?Years ago I annualed a dog of a C-310. It had several seriously bent flap push-pull rods. It surprised me to see in the 310 manual that the fix for "bent push-pull rods" was "straighten or replace". Hopefully your A&P hasn't done this with your aileron rods without first checking to see if they weren't formed that way in Wichita 69 years ago. Make sure he abides by the Hippocratic oath all AMTs swear to when receiving their license: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

I'll take a look when I get to the hangar in a couple days.

My recollection is that they have a slight bend, and that the layout of the system made it seem to me that the bend was by design.

I believe they are slightly bent and will verify this weekend also.

Thanks guys. I told him to leave them the way they were till , I checked with the guys in the association , mine look just like that pic , posted cheers Rob

Call Duane Shockey in San Diego and ask him. He is at least an A&P and rebuilt his ragwing 170 from the ground up. I'm 99% sure he will know what those push rods are supposed to look like. Duane doesn't frequent these forums, but his contact info is in the directory.

Mine have a slight bend I know because I always check that linkage on my preflight. Bill K

Mine has the slight bend at the aileron end.

John

John,
That's interesting. The IPC shows the bend at the forward end of the rod. As George is quick to remind us the IPC isn't intended as a guide for assembling the plane and sometimes illustrations are incorrect. The mistakes in the 170B IPC that immediately come to mind are the fuel valve assembly, elevator bellcrank, and elevator cable routing. Is this another example of the illustrator getting it wrong or do you think your push-pull rod is installed backward? Which side is bent for you other guys? Should it make any difference?

Mine are like the posted pic ,cheers Rob

Definite bend in mine, also closest to the aileron.
Looking at the layout, having a bend makes perfect sense to me. If straight, the rod end would probably be jammed against the limit of travel, at the aileron attach point.