Wing Strut Bearing

[ackselle]

Guys,

The picture below is of the wing strut bearing...bent! So.... I think the threaded rod is welded into the strut tube, and it's just mild steel. My thoughts are to drill out the threaded rod (1/4"), tap 5/16 into the rod and replace the rod end bearing with a male bearing with 5/16 thread.

Thoughts?

[HighWing]

Sounds like a plan. A couple of thoughts, though. I checked mine and the threads on my 1992 Model IV are 5/16". The other thought would be to check the thickness of the plate covering the end of the lift strut for enough threads for strength.

[ackselle]

Thanks Lowell,

Absolutely correct..... the current threaded rod is 5/16....was thinking of going to 3/8

[ackselle]

Can anyone out there confirm if the threaded rod at the top of the strut tube is welded into the strut tube? Or can I remove it and simply replace it with 5/16 threaded rod? Currently, it does not turn using a wrench on the bearing.

[kmach]

Sorry to see your problem.

Is there a story behind this ?

[ackselle]

Kevin.... yes, there is a story. We can talk about it if I ever get to the Shoal Lake fly in!

Cheers

[Dusty]

Hi ackselle
I posed a similar question a while back due to some light corrosion and got some very helpful replies.
It appears the thread is a weld in,probably not what you want to hear
Without measuring I am not sure there is enough metal to drill and tap in a replacement thread.
An ideal solution would possibly be to carefully remove the fitting and install a threaded longer slug to convert to a male rod end,if this happened again it would be a minor repair of simply replacing the rod end.

[HighWing]

Can anyone out there confirm if the threaded rod at the top of the strut tube is welded into the strut tube? Or can I remove it and simply replace it with 5/16 threaded rod? Currently, it does not turn using a wrench on the bearing.

Not sure, but somehow my memory is trying to suggest that the threaded end is something like what is in the Aircraft Spruce Link below.

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo...ickkey=3027459

[Av8r3400]

Yes, Lowell. That is exactly what we have there on the lift strut.

Is the "incident" that damaged the current strut something that will happen again? If not, maybe rebuilding the strut as designed may be easier. Drilling and tapping that strut straight, in order to use a male rod end bearing, will be very difficult.

If you get replacement 5/16" rod end like Lowell linked to, you can use this to plan some careful cutting with a Dremel type tool to remove the old one in order to replace it. The strut will most likely need to come off the plane, so doing a circular cut may not be all that bad…

(I'd suggest replacing the female rod end bearing as it is probably damaged as well.)

[TJay]

Also with out adding a couple inches of tubing a male rodend will be way to short. You could cut the end of the strut off at a fish mouth shape and get a piece of solid 4130 about 4 inches long slide down into the tube a couple inches and weld it in there, then tap for a male rod end, that would give you the length and strength you need, That is kind of what I am doing, I bought these rodends from spruce GMM-4M-675 I would think they would be strong enough for your weights. Just my thoughts