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While I was working on the tailwheel yesterday I looked inside the fuselage and could see the front part of this crack in the tailpost. I cut off the fabric and now see that the crack goes all around the post. There is also a crack starting in the longeron. I guess I will do more checking to see if there is any more damage. Hope this doesn't turn into one of those "snowball" things!
The crack lines up with a hole drilled in the tailpost. Why would there be a hole drilled here? I looked in the Shortwing CD drawings. No hole shown to be here that I could find.
Wow, Don! That looks ugly Why that hole is there is a mystery to me, also. Without researching 43.13, I am not sure what the prescribed repair would be. I would guess that you could cut out the tubing above and below the crack, which would alleviate the section with the mystery hole.
Good luck with that!
That hole is awful big for a crack stop. I would never stop drill a crack in a structural tube. A fishmouth scab patch or tube in a tube for something like that.
The hole is a clean 3/16" hole. There is a sleeve inside the tube. As far as I know the sleeve is original. It shows up on the CD drawing for a PA-22 (this is a 22/20 conversion).
Come on Guys, you really do not know what this hole is for?
It is for the Tripacer tail skid. One end bolts to the forward spring bolt and the other sticks up into the hole.
Conversion person should have slid an internal tube into the vertical post and rosette welded before welding on the tail wheel spring saddle I suppose. I bet it this is in conversion instructions/drawing.
I have drilled out hole in saddle to slip in an internal doubler tube to repair similar crack on T-crate. Not 100% 43.13 but works well without causing interference with the rudder and hinge fittings.
Typical crack found in converted Pacers. Rocket is correct as to that hole being used for attaching the tail skid / tie down on the Tri-Pacer. According to the conversion instructions, you just remove the skid and weld on the tail spring pad. My typical fix for that is to cut off the spring pad, remove the old sleeve (which can be a PITA) and insert a 12 inch long heavy wall tube into the tail post. Weld up the hole and the end of the tube and then install a new spring pad. Nice thing about doing it this way is you can set up your caster angle correctly (if it was off to begin with) when you weld back on the pad. I also add a sleeve to the square tube at the front tailwheel spring attach point if it has not been done. I also recommend "boxing" the tail section. Paint everything up with good anti corrosion paints and then patch in the fabric.
Not the shortest job but it makes a stronger tailwheel attachment.
Brian.
Last edited by stevesaircraft(Bri); 08-05-2013 at 11:39 AM.
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Found a crack in tail post
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Why that hole is there is a mystery to me, also. Without researching 43.13, I am not sure what the prescribed repair would be. I would guess that you could cut out the tubing above and below the crack, which would alleviate the section with the mystery hole.
Originally Posted by rocket
