Ordering sealed struts and some things for the annual on my PA16 Clipper

[JohnD]

Hi, I want to order sealed lift struts for my Clipper and was wondering if it is just Univair who sells them or if I should be looking somewhere else.
Should I be ordering some other items as well for replacing the struts?

Regarding the annual I am going to order some CO detectors, spark plugs (think I will order REM40E for the 235 c1) and air filter.

I am open to ideas on what to add to this short shopping list since I will be shipping it overseas.

[Subsonic]

You might add an O-320 Lycoming to the list.

Oh, and I got my sealed struts from Airframes Alaska with all new stainless steel forks and AN attachment bolts. https://www.airframesalaska.com/PA-2...uts-s/1896.htm

[dgapilot]

Lower bolts are not AN bolts!


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[Subsonic]

Lower bolts are not AN bolts!


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Really? What are they?

[dgapilot]

Upper bolts are AN, lower bolts and nuts are Piper part numbers.

https://www.univair.com/piper/piper-...SABEgKAefD_BwE


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[walt.buskey]

Ditto on the lower bolts. Use Piper parts; they're a bit shorter. I also got my struts from Airframes AK -- they can also powder-coat them so you don't have to deal with painting.

[PA-16]

Really? What are they?

I don't see how the stronger 464p6 bolt could ever interfere, the only way it could on my Clipper is if I broke the gear off, we swapped out the stronger bolts for the weaker ones though. Placed next to each other the NAS464p6 bolt is about 1/8 inch longer, the thread lengths are same, the grip non threaded section of shank on the NAS bolt is 11/16 and on the Univair bolt is 9/16. Installed it's hard to tell the difference, the new Univair bolt is only 1/16 inch shorter on the underside of fork.

From a thread in 2018 https://www.shortwingpipers.org/foru...ut-Attach-bolt

There is a Piper service bullit 1172 strut bolt hardware, attatched figure below. If you have the NAS464P6-11 bolts you are good for 500 hours. My plane had them installed with new sealed struts 15 years ago and am almost to the 500 hour limit so I ordered the new univair bolts, they are exactly the same size as the NAS464P6-11 bolts. NAS464 sheer bolt is rated to 160,000 psi tensile strength which is more than the Univair bolts 125,000 psi. Strange to swap out a stronger bolt for a weaker bolt.

[ysifly2]

Ditto on the lower bolts. Use Piper parts; they're a bit shorter. I also got my struts from Airframes AK -- they can also powder-coat them so you don't have to deal with painting.

I believe they are custom Piper p/n because they have a longer grip length in proportion to their overall length compared to a same length AN bolt.

Bryan


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[Steve Pierce]

I don't believe Airframes makes PA16 lift struts but I might be wrong. I would get the struts and the lower strut bolts from Univair for sure.

I don't see how the stronger 464p6 bolt could ever interfere, the only way it could on my Clipper is if I broke the gear off, we swapped out the stronger bolts for the weaker ones though. Placed next to each other the NAS464p6 bolt is about 1/8 inch longer, the thread lengths are same, the grip non threaded section of shank on the NAS bolt is 11/16 and on the Univair bolt is 9/16. Installed it's hard to tell the difference, the new Univair bolt is only 1/16 inch shorter on the underside of fork.

From a thread in 2018 https://www.shortwingpipers.org/foru...ut-Attach-bolt

Easier for me to source and install the Piper bolts from Univair because I have had interference issues with the longer NAS bolts alled out in the SB. Piper put that out because they no longer make the bolts. The important thing to know is like Bran posted, the Piper bolt has a shorter threaded portion to keep threads out of the shear area of the joint between the fork and fuselage and the end of the bolt out of the landing gear top when the gear is splayed out in a hard landing. We had to install the NAS bolts upside down on a Super Cub. When it got away from the owner hand propping a dead battery and hit a chemical tote I had to lift the whole airplane up, remove the gear and the remove the struts. A major pain. Same with a Carbon Cub that Cub Crafters wallowed the strut attach fitting holes out on and they had to engineer a fix after we found it that entailed custom machined forks, NAS bolts installed upside down while the airplane is hanging from the ceiling because the gear has to be removed to get the bolts in. Then throw in your lead mechanic who is living in the apartment at your hangar stayed up covering his wings and drinking beer with his buddies and doesn't comeout till 10 am to help.
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[PA-16]

I had the NAS464P6-11 in my Clipper, not the AN bolts like those. I still have them at the hangar, I will post a picture of one, it is a sixteenth of an inch longer on the bottom, the thread length the same as the13241. I would understand the change from a long AN bolt like you show there, but not for 1/16 of an inch shorter.