Airframes Shock Absorbing Tail Wheel Unit

[Bdflies]

Ah, Battson, you do post the most inspirational pictures!

Bill

[Battson]

Ah, Battson, you do post the most inspirational pictures!

Bill

Thanks Bill!
It might please you to hear this: We discovered that practically anywhere you can land a 150hp Cub with 2 people and 50% fuel, you can also land a Bearhawk 4-place with 2 people and 50% fuel. Sometimes we were landing shorter than the Cubs.

[Mark Goldberg]

Pilot skill is a big part in this kind of comparison. Commander Battson can really fly his BH. Mark

[Helidesigner]

On a rocky surface like that in your picture I'm not surprised there was a lot of twisting. I bet the tail wheel would ride up on a rock only to fall off to one side or the other.

[bergy]

I am assembling my tailwlheel, including the used spindle assembly I bought from Jared. I think it is a Scott Weinberg unit. Barrow's plans spec a 5/16 - 24 bolt to hold it together. I just took the unit to the hardware store and tried every bold in the the place on-for-size and could not find anything that would screw in to the tapped hole. Any ideal if Weinberg used something different, or might it just be reeeeeeaaallly tight?

[Battson]

I am assembling my tailwlheel, including the used spindle assembly I bought from Jared. I think it is a Scott Weinberg unit. Barrow's plans spec a 5/16 - 24 bolt to hold it together. I just took the unit to the hardware store and tried every bold in the the place on-for-size and could not find anything that would screw in to the tapped hole. Any ideal if Weinberg used something different, or might it just be reeeeeeaaallly tight?

It sounds too tight, my Bearhawk Tailwheel (Bob's desgin) was easy to disassemble and reassemble despite having a very hard life. Maybe there's some corrosion if it's a used part?

I never like to force a bolt, you only regret it later. If in doubt, check the maximum torque for a tension bolt and never exceed it...

[tailwind]

You can make an educated guess if the hole is tapped 5/16-24. You should be able to slide a tap drill into the hole. The correct Tao drill is letter "I" which is .272 diameter. You might also be able to measure the inside diameter of the hole with a vernier. If the hole measures correct you are now half way home.

Now comes the the hard part. No science here just a good guess. Purchase a 5/16-24 bolt using a flashlight inspect the thread pitch inside the hole with that of your bolt.

If the inside diameter of the hole and the pitch appear to match I would go ahead and re tap the hole.

You might try calling the Mfg to see if they used something different. It is possible but I highly doubt that it would be tapped metric.

[bergy]

Thanks ... The Mfg website gives me a 404 error, and I cannot find a phone number for Weinberg. I emailed him with a question last year, never got a response. I did try all metric combinations I found at a well-stocked hardware store and found nothing that fit. I did buy a 5/16-25 cap-screw for testing purposes. Will play some more

[aachanis]

Try the archive.org site at: https://web-beta.archive.org/web/201...tailwheels.htm

This page lists one of the bolts as '5/16" fine AN bolt'. Don't know if that's the one you're looking for.

[BTAZ]

Scott(Iron Design) is active on the Legal Eagle forum.

His profile is here: https://www.eaglersnest.com/forum/in...=profile;u=135 so you may be able to message him that way.

[bergy]

I finally got hold of Scott's cell# from above info. I can see light at end of tunnel. Thanks guys!

[bergy]

Problem solved. The threads were/are as spec'd ... 5/16-24 The problem was that the top few threads were flattened inside the tailwheel spindle (for some unknown reason). A tap cleaned them up nicely. I didnt want to run a tap down the hole until I was quite sure I had the correct pitch.