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Thread: Bungee Installation

  1. #1
    Administrator Steve Pierce's Avatar
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    Default Bungee Installation

    Cathy has been flying a friends Tri-Pacer and I noticed the bungees have been sagging a bit. A little investigation revealed 2 1080s were installed last time and it has always been my experience that that combination normally only last a year or so before the sag sets in. I ordered two 1280HD bungees and thought I would swap out the one 1080 since they were pretty new. Cathy removed the seats, put the tail stand on the tail guard, weighted the left wing at the tie down fitting and picked the front of the airplane up at the propeller via a prop sling and engine hoist until the right wheel cleared the ground.
    100_3509.jpg
    She then removed the top bolt out of the right hydrasorb, picked the right gear up enough to stick a milk crate under it and expose the bottom hydrasorb bolt, removed it, and wiggled the hyrdasorb out the top.
    100_3510.JPG
    I then cut one of the 1080s off and installed a 1280HD and she reversed the process to install. It was time for soccer practice so we will finish up tomorrow.
    100_3518.jpg
    100_3520.jpg
    You can see the 1080 and 1280HD bungee installed closest in the picture and two 1080s on the far side. We will see how this works out because my Pacer and Brian's Tri-Pacer all have fairly new 1080s with a sag.
    Last edited by Steve Pierce; 08-25-2021 at 12:19 PM.

  2. #2

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    Default Re: Bungee Installation

    That is how it works on my Tripacer except I put a barrel under the tailskid. I was wondering why some were pulling the hydrosorb out the bottom. Larry

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    Frank Green's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bungee Installation

    I pick mine up by the motormount at the fire wall. After taking out the hydros I put in a short length of chain so I can set her down while I take the hydros home to change. I use 2 1080HDs on a standard Tri and no problems. If you are using regular 1080s they are rated at 750lbs. each(1500). 1080HD are 900 lbs(1800). Your combination of one 1080 (750) and one 1280HD (950) yields a combo of 1700 lbs. 2 1080HDs are 1800 lbs. The difference is the 1080HDs are 5/8 diam. vs the 1280HD at 3/4 and the double 1080HDs fit on the Hydro and in the plane a little better.
    -Super Stub-

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    Default Re: Bungee Installation

    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Huntley
    That is how it works on my Tripacer except I put a barrel under the tailskid. I was wondering why some were pulling the hydrosorb out the bottom. Larry
    Because...it's incredibly easier! You don't even have to remove the seats to change the bungee cords (and only unsnap ONE SIDE of the leatherette cover), and since you HAVE TO crawl underneath to remove the lower bolt on each HydroSorb anyway... what could POSSIBLY make more sense than "while you are RIGHT THERE" to put your foot on the lower half of the tire on that side, push the gearleg out/up "just enough" and TAKE THE SHOCK OUT, all in one motion? No messin' around with slippy-slidey on trash bags or grease plates, no leaning inside trying not to shake the airplane, no callisthenics to "wiggle the shock out" and by golly getting the top bolt in is "pleasantly possible" without messin' around with a comealong. Lookit...TRY it, you'll like it. Airplanes were MEANT to be "off the ground". You could STILL "chain binder" the gear and even set it back down on it's sneakers overnight, if it blows up yer skirt. Been there, done that (but I use an "old set" of HydroSorbs with 50 year old bungees on it).

    I represent the remark: "Give an unreasonable task to a Lazy Man, and he'll find the easiest way." I suppose if you WANTED to do it the hardest way possible, you could find a way to take the bottom bolt out by working past the battery box from the "top"!!! You could always die grind the "superstructure" (or "birdcage", or "Piper channel") off enough to push out the bolt and weld a new piece back in when you are done...

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    Administrator Steve Pierce's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bungee Installation

    John, Isn't it kinda a pain to get the bolt out with the seat in? Took me a few minutes to pop the seats out and Cathy did the rest except for actually installing the bungee. She did it in the time it took me to spray a cross coat of dope on an aileron. What is the reference to "slippy-slidey on trash bags or grease plates" and "comealong"? I remember pulling it out through the bottom and pushing the wheel out with my leg, kinda heavy and cumbersome, this was way easier for me.

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    Default Re: Bungee Installation

    Steve - A wife who can change the bungees on a Tripacer!!!! - You surely are blessed - make sure you treat her right as she is definately a keeper.

    Curly

  7. #7
    smcnutt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bungee Installation

    Quote Originally Posted by Curly
    Steve - A wife who can change the bungees on a Tripacer!!!! - You surely are blessed - make sure you treat her right as she is definately a keeper.

    Curly
    ...and she's a pilot http://www.shortwingpipers.org/phpbb...5&p=4380#p4380 Now if you tell us she can cook, you might have a stampede heading to your doorstep!
    “Seek advice but use your own common sense.”
    ― Yiddish Proverb

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    Default Re: Bungee Installation

    llSteve; well, that's kinda my point...the garbage bags and/or grease plates have something to do with "letting the gear swing out to get the bottom bolts"...or sumpthin' (?) when you winch the gear TOGETHER (which is -again- my point!). YOU apparently are (not "apparently", you ARE!) talking about lifting the airplane up off the wheels. So am I! When you raise the aircraft off the wheels, GRAVITY keeps the gear together and the only reason I would refer to a comealong otherwise would be to LIFT THE AIRPLANE (and I think I have related my preferences about THAT enough times on the past. But then, my Posts are sometimes AWFULLY LONG and maybe some people don't read "all of them, all the time". Short attention span, I'd think ).

    What I have been taking exception with all this time is the "you don't have to pick the airplane up at all if you are winching the gear together" way of doing this task. Maybe...just MAYBE!...I misunderstand something about "another way to do it", but to ME, raising the airplane up off it's gear is the ONLY way to fly (pun intended!).

    No, I have no problem removing the top bolt(s) with the seats in. I remove the nut, install a fine thread "hardware store" nut on only about 3/4 the thickness of the nut, put a 1/4" drift punch in the open part of the nut (so it bears on the end of the bolt and doesn't jump off sideways) and tap it forward with my handy-dandy rebar shanked, brass headed home made does everything hammer (I don't own any "Store bought" hammers except bodyman's hammers and a wee tiny ballpein and a 6 pound sledge ( for taking out stabilizer cross tubes. just kidding). Then there's an Estwing 20 oz claw hammer and it's framing cousin but they are only for wood, like building things like sheds and doing home renovations and the like). Once you get these bolts to move, I put a socket on the bolt (with a small breaker bar, not a ratchet) and slide a 7/16 wrench over the shank. Rotate the head back and forth and push on the underside of the head with the wrench and out she comes. I've had to use vice grips (and some awful dirty names, sometimes) but if they come that hard, they'll be needing new bolts anyway. But then I'm also of the "use new hardware" school of thought anyway.

    For putting them back, I'm a big fan of "home made alignment studs" (long bolts with the heads cut off and put in the lathe and turned down a few thousandths -and of course, a taper ground on the end. A small hole in the "handle end" and a piece of forty thou' safetie wire makes recovery a snap when the "real" bolt chases it out of the holes. If I HAVE TO take out a seat or two, I certainly would...but normally if the airplane got new bungees every few years like they SHOULD, they aren't usually a problem.

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    Glen Geller's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bungee Installation

    I have replaced bungees on four or five PA22's, we also lift with an engine hoist from the motormount at the firewall, it requires removing the upper cowl (just four fasteners) but avoids possible damage to the prop/spinner/crankshaft/crankcase/motormounting hardware. My mechanic has done it via the motormount at the firewall method thousands of times since he was a young man in WWII.
    Glen Geller
    1955 PA22-150 "One For Papa!"

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    Administrator Steve Pierce's Avatar
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    Default Re: Bungee Installation

    John, I must have missed that thread. I always pick it up. Easier to line up holes. Another note: Sometime the hydrasorb gets tweaked a bit and the holes won't line up. I try and install the hydrasorb in the same exact position as it came out. Sometimes if it is 180 degrees out it is hard to line up. The bullet alignment pins John mentioned are also a major help.

    If you have a spreader bar the prop sling works nice because you don't have to remove cowling and fish a strap around all that stuff at the firewall. The prop holds the engine up in flight and have not heard of any problems doing it this way. Done it both ways for years with no problem either way but sometimes it isn't as easy or quick to use the engine mount. Whatever you do don't use the engine lift ring.

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