What is that noise?

lwford

lwford

New member
I have owned my Cruisemaster for 5 years and over 500 hours. Today I heard a noise while pushing back from the fuel pumps. It was a metal noise and only happened once. I got it into the hangar and started looking real close at the gear. The gear is the weak link of any Cruisemaster!! Sure as Sh*t the rear bracket on the right gear has a crack p/n 18939-20. Called Carroll at AAC and ordered the right and left. Sure wish I could post a picture on this site to show you what I found :evil: . I want to give all you Cruisemaster lovers a heads up on the gear. I replaced the down link bracket 18941-10 on the left gear 2 years ago. IT IS ALWAYS ON THE REAR SPAR! Can't press this enough Check your gear. LYNN N9818B :x
 
Thanks Lynn. We have a 50 inspection AD for what I believe is a similar bracket on the Cruisair. DITTO on the gear being the weak link...along with the pilot. Larry
 
Sounds like I oughta go ahead and buy replacements while I've got the wings off 392.
Is AAC Alexander Air :?:
 
Dave,
Alexandria Aircraft LLC may or may not have your parts as they do not have the "rights" to the 14-13 series. (They might have parts that will fit however.) If you are not successful in getting them there, email me off board at garylbrink@yahoo.com and I may be able to locate some from another source.
Gary
 
Lynn-

If you want to post pictures, sign up with Photobucket and download your pics there. Then you can give us the URL for the particular picture here and we can see it :D

If you are interested, shoot me an e-mail and I'll get the website to you.

cruisair "at" hotmail.com
 
Dave, I believe the PN is 7560. It is also referred to in AD 63-17-01 and it is on Page 50, item 27 in the Bellanca Cruisair Senior Parts Manual and Price List.
Larry
 
Thanks Larry!
Y'know, I've heard shot-peening helps strengthen parts. I wonder if it just work-hardens the metal?
 
Going back to the books, I checked Fundamentals of Aircraft Material Factors by Charles Dole. It was a good review! So, here you go –
Work hardening requires that the piece be loaded in TENSION beyond the yield stress. This then results in the extension of the elastic range, the proportional limit and the yield stress as the piece develops a permanent elongation or set. However, the ductility of the metal is reduced by the amount of set. There should be no change in the ultimate tensile stress. Cracking of the metal and residual stresses may result from work hardening, so care must be taken not to work harden above 90 percent of the metal’s ultimate stress. Cracking can then lead to metal fatigue. Residual stresses can lead to stress corrosion cracking.

Shot peening is used to improve fatigue life by introducing residual COMPRESSIVE stress. Tension is required to spread fatigue cracks, compression will reduce or eliminate tension stress. Shot peening bombards the metal surface and puts a small compressive dent into it. The dents overlap and the entire surface will be in compression. Aren't you sorry you asked? Larry :roll:
 
Not at all! That sounds like a good thing for the LG parts. Now all I gotta do is find someone somewhat local who does such things.
 
Just do what the AD calls for and reinforce the bracket. I have almost 900 hrs on the gear after the repair and it still looks good. Maybe it is because I never make a bad landing. (RIGHT) :lol: :lol: :lol: :roll: :roll:
 
Just for my information, are we talking the scissors bracket? Is this the part that needed to be reinforced with welding-on washers? I've got some spares...for the 14-19.

I agree with our sage brush sage. I will not, however, resort to the Nike slogan.

Off topic: Randy...what the heck is a KR 1.5? I'm familiar with the Rand Robinson KR series - familiar enough to be frightened by them - but not the 1.5 :)

Jonathan
 
It took 5 hours and lots of bad noises to change the rear spar bracket on the crate p/n 18939-20R. The 5/8 and 9/16 holes (3) must align perfectly or you won't get it in. I used a second jack a tapered punch and home made tapered bolts to do this. On another note. I ordered new flap springs p/n 192585 but got much heaveier springs sent to me sure as sh*t they are the same springs as used in the tailwheel steering. These springs are much bigger and more powerful ,this is to much strain on the hyd. power pack for flaps. I'll put these in the tailwheel when I recover the crate the end of next month. I bet that I can match up new flap springs at my local hardware store. :x :x Lynn the crate
 
Lynn:

Now that you're in the midst of repairing the landing gear on your kite this is probably the wrong time to ask, but are the landing gear on our beloved birds truly weak or did you mean they were weak in relation to rest of our stout birds? When I think of weak retracts, the insect leg affairs on Cessnas come to mind. Heck isn't retractable gear the weak link on most retracts save, perhaps, the Mooney?

You're the mechanic. I'm merely an obsessed observer.

Jonathan
 
Lynn,

You well know MY experience with the gear <cough>.

My Luscombe has no hydraulics (except for the brakes - a mod I needed to employ a hand actuated brake on the right side), no landing gear lights, no landing gear bracket AD, or any such thing. I don't even need an indicator popping out of the wing to tell me the gear is down and locked. :wink:

Jonathan
 
Lynn, I have to agree with you about the gear, I have all the parts now, took them to factory, along with the wings and had them rebuilt. Good desision, they have all the tools to do the job and Carol still did a lot of cussing. They looked over the wings and brackets and said everything looked OK, guess I will go with the old brackets. I won't ever reveal how much I have in just the gear, but hey, its a classic :) Thats the price you pay to get your gear half way up :!:

Jonathan, the mooney gear (manual) is probably the most fool proof out there. But is has been my experience in 34 years of professional flying that someone will find a way to tear about anything up. The Maule gear is suppose to be "weak" and by damn at landing speed and about 90 degrees to the forward motion they sure are :?: I bent a gear on a stearman early in my career :oops: and its built out of material much like drill rod. I guess what I am basically saying with all this bull is keep any of them well maintained and going strait. :arrow:

Monty A&P (Amateur Putter)
 
Monty, no doubt in my mind you paid the price! Your like the rest of us fools--love that old crate and you only live once--sooo enjoy it because sooner than you think it will be all over. Lynn the crate :)
 
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