Any reason against switching an O-360 C4P to a hollow crank during rebuild?
Jason at Aerotech says the AD on the hollow crank bore was later proven to be based on a couple cranks that were prop strike victims. The failures were not due to corrosion in the bore.
As long as the corrosion service bulletin has been complied with and corrosion repaired? I wouldn’t hesitate. I’ve never had a solid crankshaft myself.
Well I bent the Condor Cub again. Feeling pretty bad about it, but relieved we got it home. 100% pilot error. The strip starts at 15% and ramps up to more than 30% in the middle. Caught the lip at the bottom of the strip. I was planting it to be sure I didn't overshoot the 15% touchdown zone. I didn't notice that when they cleaned the strip they pushed the grass and brush off the lower end lip creating an illusion of 10 extra feet of length. The off camber meant the right wheel took the hit.
Tips on repairing this? Seems like I'll have to cut a piece of fabric around the fitting, grind off and weld new fitting on. Surely standard stuff in Alaska but I've never seen it done.
Javron sells stock piper style fitting and cabane. Airframes sells HD versions. Pros and cons? Replace safety cables as well? Everything will get inspected after I get the docs extracted by ground.
Trim the fabric back around the fitting and cut the fitting off being careful not to nick the tube. Then trim the rest of the fitting off the tube. Check the gear for kinks and swelled up spots at the clusters and attach fittings. Use the gear as a fixture to weld the new fitting on. The Airframes fittings are double thickness there. Be aware that the cabane usually has to be flexed a bit to be installed.
You can bet I'm a believer in safety cables and Acmes! The upper left cable pulled so hard on the gear fitting it cracked the aft ear. The Cub would have been a pile of parts in a location that is a 13 hour jeep trip from the nearest help plus a 1 hour walk beyond the end of the road. Thanks to the cables, the repair should be hundreds, not tens of thousands.
I should have given an update on the engine. Got it back in mid March. First flight was late April (bureaucracy). 50 hours on it now. It makes an extra 100 rpm static and climbs at 2600 @ 60 mph. Temps seem a little higher but even running rich to keep it cool I see slighty better climb rates heavy and much better light when I can lean more. It doesn't distribute fuel as evenly as before but it is slightly more efficient and loves 16K at <6 gph.
Steve is this the kind of thing you would be looking for?
What kind of repair will be easiest on the cross tube?
Any cool tricks for determining if the gear is tweaked?