The International Cessna^® 170 Association

After hearing about changing the main leaf on my tail spring I waited for bad weather to tear it apart, already had the new main spring on the bench. Well my grandson and I fly it yesterday, weather marginal and then took it apart. Sun came out today and it was beautiful here. wouldn't you know it... My question is this? After taking out the spring pack and the tail wheel if you were to set on the floor and look back into the U shaped unit that the spring goes into at the bottom of each side that turns up there is a crack about 1/2'' to 3/4'' long . I wish I could draw a picture. anyway the clamp that goes around the U shaped assembly and holds the springs in place has had a piece of metal brazed onto it that when you tighten this clamp the bottom of the clamp would put pressure on the bottom of U shaped part . I think this is what cracked the part.??? Or is this common? If you look into the tail were the spring bolts with the vertical bolt it looks good no damage. Could you fabricate a clamp that had a vertical piece on each side of the U shaped piece and flat on the bottom to hold everything in place? Also if this clamp would work should I stop drill the crack? Thanks Russ

There were two types of tailwheel (spring) bracket. The earlier style was steel, smaller, and rather box-like. The later was aluminum, larger, with two long "fingers" that reached forward along the fuselage sides, sometimes referred to as a "fish-mouth" bracket. (PN:0512000-75)
This later bracket was not as prone to cracking as the earlier style, used on aircraft SN's 20805 and prior.
The "U" shaped clamp you refer to: Are you referring to something other than PN:0510000-32?
It would be much easier to assist you if you used the IPC to determine which item, and PN you are discussing.