bad vibrations

How to keep the Cessna 170 flying and airworthy.

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ghostflyer
Posts: 1423
Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:06 am

bad vibrations

Post by ghostflyer »

For the last 12 months I have a minor vibration in the engine. it was dependent on engine rpm. I checked around and found nothing out of the ordinary. ok prop balance coming up at the next 100hrly. I was putting the spinner back on and checking the screws for condition. if a screw looks real used its replaced.it makes getting it off next time a lot easier. All the screws were lying on the bench and I was spraying them with WD40 when I noticed some were longer than the others . It dawned on me the shorter ones were on one side of the spinner and the longer ones were on the other side . so I spat the dummy and replaced all the screws on the spinner [all the same length]. Vibration gone . so the moral of the story is check your screw length.
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cessna170bdriver
Posts: 4115
Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2002 5:13 pm

Re: bad vibrations

Post by cessna170bdriver »

Before I finished reading your post and not knowing you'd already found and solved the problem, my first guess was that the prop got installed at the last annual not clocked in the proper position.
Miles

“I envy no man that knows more than myself, but pity them that know less.”
— Thomas Browne
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DaveF
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Joined: Sat Nov 03, 2007 1:44 am

Re: bad vibrations

Post by DaveF »

flyboy122
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Joined: Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:30 am

Re: bad vibrations

Post by flyboy122 »

If you can get a hold of Chadwick-Helmuths pamphlet "The Smooth Propeller" (google found it for me last year) it has all the calculations for determining the effect of bolt and screw length on balance. It's pretty interesting, and after reading it your results will not be surprising.

DEM
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gfeher
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Joined: Fri Sep 26, 2014 9:19 pm

Re: bad vibrations

Post by gfeher »

I tired to attached a copy of "The Smooth Propeller," but at just 2.8 MB it exceeded the file limit of the forum. You can download a copy here:
http://www.expaircraft.com/PDF/SmoothPropeller.pdf
Gene Feher
Argyle (1C3), NY
'52 170B N2315D s/n 20467 C-145-2
Experimental J3 Cub Copy N7GW O-200
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