When I purchased my plane last year, she came equiped with compression type tailwheel steering springs. Soon after, I replaced them with tension springs. It looked to me like the steering arms coming out of the tailwheel had been bent upward but nothing that worried me too much. Yesterday, I pulled apart the tailwheel assembly to clean and regrease it. Upon cleaning, I discovered a huge crack on the bottom side of the steering arm which could not be seen with the tailwheel on the plane as it was concealed by the dust covers. The crack extended from the leading edge of the arm and went about 3/4 of the way to the rear. Something those of you who run, or who have run compression type springs for steering to check for. I also saw, while climbing back in the tail, the bulkhead where the aft rudder cable pulley attaches has been repared with a doubler. Just something for you all to be aware of and another case of DON'T RUN COMPRESSION SPRINGS FOR STEERING!!!!!!!!
BTW: Replaced the steering arm with Alaskan Bushwheels heavy duty arm P/N ABI-3214T. It is MUCH more stout than the original. Plus the arm goes out of the TW assembly and then turns vertical where the spring hole is located which helps reduce the angle of the steering springs. If you choose to upgrade, you will need new upper and lower dust covers to accomidate the larger arms P/N ABI-3256-02 and ABI-3256-01.
Just went through the whole bent, cracked, steering arm thing with 4050victory and have found some interesting facts.
I began my journey with first ordering a new arm and bottom thrust washer along with a new release paul. the problem became worse, took apart the wheel assembly and reassembled several times. Then I read all I could on this site and others, and then I called the folks at Alaska Bush Wheel and talked to their tail wheel guy Steve. They have had this problem for quite a while and he told me they even designed a new release paul that is longer and will allow the steering to be tightend up as the arms are being bent when the tire goes to the release possition and the chains have reached their stop., So I ordered said new and improved part and installed yesterday adjusted the chains and its working great.
Hope this helps any one that is having this problem;
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Something those of you who run, or who have run compression type springs for steering to check for. I also saw, while climbing back in the tail, the bulkhead where the aft rudder cable pulley attaches has been repared with a doubler. Just something for you all to be aware of and another case of DON'T RUN COMPRESSION SPRINGS FOR STEERING!!!!!!!!