My tailwheel assembly resembles the drawing 15085, however it does not have the lock/unlock rod 15085-11 or any of the associate
d hardware. The spring loaded -3 pin is depressed by the ramps in the 15091-10 cam plate to make the wheel swivel. My assembly more closely resembles that shown in the parts list Plate 117B for the Cruisair Senior.
The drawing does answer the question of the amount of preload (30 lbs.) to put on the steering cables, however I’m not sure of the rigging sequence. When preload is placed on the steering cables then the rudder cable segment from the clamp block to the rudder bell crank goes slack - so I assume the rigging is a 3 step process, to tighten that cable segment again. But then, I don’t have the rigging instructions for any of the control cables so I don’t know how much tension to set in the first step.
When I took delivery of the airplane last month, fresh out of an annual in December, the entire steering system was slack. The airplane was all over the place and I’m lucky I didn’t ground loop it first time out. When I raised the tail I found the tailwheel nearly impossible to move left or right, although left was easier. Since I had discovered a fuel leak under the pilot seat I grounded the airplane to go all through it.
What I found, besides grit and grime, was the steering collar dimension (shown on the drawing as 13/16) was oversized so that the set screw holes in the steering collar, going through the fuselage steering post and the bronze bushing, would not align. As a result the set screws were bottoming on the bronze bushing and when tightened would distort the bushing causing further binding on the tail wheel cylinder. When off the airplane the tailwheel assembly swivels effortlessly in the bushing, so after adjusting the steering collar dimension we were halfway home.
The next restriction to a free swiveling tailwheel is the packing interference between the piston and the cylinder. Unlike a normal hydraulic cylinder/piston arrangement, it is very difficult to rotate the cylinder around the piston. It is also very difficult to extend or compress the tailwheel to the spring level, even with the filler plug removed and the assembly drained. So, I assume the wrong packing is installed, or the wrong fluid was introduced causing the packing to swell. I was reluctant to disassemble further until I could identify or source the packing.
I was also thinking that maybe the piston and cylinder are supposed to rotate together as an assembly, which would be possible if there were thrust washers at the upper mounting. I couldn’t tell if that might have been a part of the original design.
If you have access to drawings 7869, 7887, 8316 and 15091 that would appear to complete anything I’d need to know about the tailwheel assembly, and of course I’d be willing to pay for them. Are these drawings available through the Bellanca Club? If you know of a source for any of the required parts that would also be very helpful.
I do have the two inspection holes and was thinking of adding two more so I could access the blocks more easily, or of coming up with a special tool to allow one-person tightening of the clamps.
This is my third Bellanca although my first tailwheel version, and I’m sure I will love it after I get some of the bugs removed.
Sorry to bother you with so many requests at once, but do you know if there is such a thing as a Maintenance Manual for the airplane, other than the Handbook of Instructions? I’m specifically looking for control cable and landing gear chain tensions, which judging from the information on drawing 15085 may just reside on the respective factory drawings.
