The International Cessna^® 170 Association

nippaero wrote:Finally got back around to posting a picture of the tailwheel. We disassembled everything, cleaned it thoroughly and rebuilt it. Also installed a new main spring from AS and a new tire and tube.

Nippaero, your chains are possibly to tight. Best way to check is lift the tailwheel and see if the springs stretch. Chains to tight will cause increased wear on lower rudder bearing. On the 52, the chains get tighter when the wheel is off the ground. remember this is a pull pull steering. D

One thing I didn't particularly like was the play in the tailwheel where is attaches to the main spring. The spacer on the tailwheel was a little wider than the main spring which allows it to rotate side to side a bit. Is there a different spacer available?

No, only one spacer but as these, and the springs are made to such wide tolerance, and many are worn, shimming with shim stock is not out of the question in my mind and on my aircraft. I've used steel, brass and cooper alloys for shims.

So there is no confusion, there is another spacer available for the Scott 3200 tail wheel, but it's for the 1 1/4" wide main spring used on other aircraft, not the 1 1/2" wide spring used on the 170. There is only one size spacer for the 1 1/2" wide spring. It's Scott p/n 3241-3S. The spacer does wear, so changing it every so often when you change the main leaf spring helps to reduce or maybe even eliminate the play. I found that as of July last year, Air Repair had the best price on the spacer.

As far at the chains go, I found that on my '52 B model, adding shackles to the chains at the coiled spring ends allowed me to tension the chains properly. The shackles provide about a 1/2 link adjustment so that you can remove the slack as much as possible without there being any tension on the chains. without the shackles, you are limited to adjusting the chain by full link increments. Plus, the shackles make it much easier to remove the chains. (A big bonus.) I think Bruce first came up with the idea. Here are links to a couple of threads containing info about them (there are others as well):

http://www.cessna170.org/forums/viewtop ... t=shackles

http://www.cessna170.org/forums/viewtop ... t=shackles

I found slop between the tail spring and spacer in my airplane the first time I worked on the tail wheel. I cut out a piece of a tin food can and fitted it between the two and it was the perfect thickness to provide a tighr fit.

I'm sure this has been written before but anyway; the forces put on the tail wheel assembly at landing likely will cause the attach bolt to neck (lengthen) and loose its grip. Check tightening at each annual is probably a good thing.

blueldr wrote:I found slop between the tail spring and spacer in my airplane the first time I worked on the tail wheel. I cut out a piece of a tin food can and fitted it between the two and it was the perfect thickness to provide a tighr fit.

Hey blueldr, did you use corn or green bean cans ?

Ed,
If memory serves, I think it was an Oregon Purple Plum Can, They're my all time favorite!