The International Cessna 170 Association

A wire part broke today. It is called "Fastener - Baffle" and is PN 0450277-2 (Fig.53-43). It holds rear baffle assembly, with springs, to the rear cylinders. Have not found source for new part yet and now thinking of making it out of wire. But which type of wire? Piano wire or .041 SS safety wire? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

Jim, i replaced my baffles going on a year ago and used piano wire to make the fasteners. I understand that piano wire will work harden when you coil it into a spring, which is what you want so the spring is durable and springy, so to speak. In any event, the piano wire worked very well.

.041 safety wire has worked well on my 170 for 40 years. At my insistence, we "freshened" the wire up with new at overhaul but Leroy thought we could reuse some of the old stuff. We used commercial made springs from Leroy's personal 30 lb spring collection. If you don't have 30 lb of springs in the truck body laying at the corner of your property, well I'd check out the local Hillman Hardware at your hardware store.

I used stainless steel music wire 14 years ago.
During the recent engine overhaul, it still looked like new so back in it went.

Pretty sure I can find the coil. Let me know if I can send you a piece.

I'm showing the part numbers as 0450211-2 for the small wedges and 045211-1 for the larger wedges, which are available through any Cessna online parts supplier but at $31 a pop you may want to go with the piano wire.

Compression-springs sourced from ACE hardware, ordinary AN washers and safety-wire works for me too. (I'm glad to know LeRoy also has traceable parts.)

By the way, the ones that I copied in 2004 (which I believed to be original, but who really knows) were .051 diameter wire, and seemed to be tempered spring wire. I have no doubt that safety wire would work, but I would use tempered wire again if I were doing it.

Thanks guys for the fast input. Piano wire was not available locally, but had stock of .041 SS safety wire that is now wrapped around the back two cylinders and out through the rear baffle. That took a bit of time threading the wire with all the baffles in place. As for springs, like Bruce's friend Leroy I also have a small stash of springs left over from other baffle work. As luck would have it there were 4 matching springs. Since I am using the safety wire, in place of Piano wire, my Annual will include checking them very closely every inspection.