Looks like I gotta go in and replace a cracked left main landing gear OUTBOARD bracket. Best price for a replacement is PPONK. Question for you experienced and knowledgeable folks is: How does one replace this bracket. It's buried deep in the lower forward fuselage inside the landing gear box and extremely difficult to access. Requires removal of floorboard. Also, have to drill out a couple of huge Hi-Shear rivets plus a whole bunch of smaller ones. All done with the aircraft jacked on the left wing. A daunting task to say the least. Any ideas or suggestions on how to proceed will be mucho appreciated.
Also, anybody have any first hand info on how to fit the shims to this bracket when reinstalling the spring gear?? If these are shims, how does one know the old shims will fit the new bracket??
It is a bit of a job but not quite as bad as you make it out to be. If I remember right my a&p cut a new inspection hole right up against the sidewall over the casting for access and did the job from there. As to the shims, just put them back as you found them. Somebody to help who has been there before several times can be worth a bunch your first time. An overhead hoist can be a real help too.
Just a heads up, I have been helping a friend of mine convert a 1956 172 to conventional gear. We used the PPonk gear attach fittings. The slot in the outboard gear fitting appeared to be taller than my 170B. Additional shims (or custom made) shims were required to obtain proper gear leg clamp up. We used the later (1953 and subsequent) 170B gear legs which are thicker than the pre 1953 legs.
Good day, Larry
Larry,just out of curiosity,whose tailwheel conversion kit is your friend using? Or is he using 170/180 parts,or what? There's a lot of straight-tail 172's out there that could stand a little re-arranging,it'd be nice to know what's available & what kind of costs are involved. Any info you could pass on would be appreciated.
N170CT wrote:
Also, anybody have any first hand info on how to fit the shims to this bracket when reinstalling the spring gear?? If these are shims, how does one know the old shims will fit the new bracket??
Sincerest thanks to all you folks who responded. Unfortunately, it gets worse . The Parts Manual calls for two (2) NAS178-10-6 Hi-Shear rivets which appear to be impossible to obtain. Even Hi-Shear no longer lists these. Anybody know of a substitute part for these rivets?? PPONK says I can use a NAS464 bolt, but they do not know the grip length. Again, any comments will be most appreciated.
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Best price for a replacement is PPONK. Question for you experienced and knowledgeable folks is: How does one replace this bracket. It's buried deep in the lower forward fuselage inside the landing gear box and extremely difficult to access. Requires removal of floorboard. Also, have to drill out a couple of huge Hi-Shear rivets 
plus a whole bunch of smaller ones. All done with the aircraft jacked on the left wing. A daunting task to say the least. Any ideas or suggestions 
on how to proceed will be mucho appreciated.
. The Parts Manual calls for two (2) NAS178-10-6 Hi-Shear rivets which appear to be impossible to obtain. Even Hi-Shear no longer lists these. Anybody know of a substitute part for these rivets?? PPONK says I can use a NAS464 bolt, but they do not know the grip length. Again, any comments will be most appreciated.