T3 tail clicking

[JoeRuscito]

Ive noticed some clicking that has gotten more and more noticeable when pushing my plane around. I have the T3 tail suspension and I notice it most when applying a side load to the assembly. For example if the tail wheel is locked in the straight forward position and I grab the handle and shift the tail back and forth but not enough to break the wheel loose to free caster. I cannot tell if it's coming from inside the tail or from the bolts/pivots and assembly of the T3 shifting slightly. Nothing seems to be loose and there isn't any apparent shifting at the attachment points to the fuselage. Im wondering if anyone else with the T3 notices this and if its maybe normal and something I shouldn't worry about.

[Jcard]

Same type of noise on mine.
The flex in the tubes is enough to make the aluminum cover on the vertical stabilizer make the noise.
It moves enough that I ran a scope all through the tail to try and find any issues, but none found.
The lenth of the T3 and the baby bush is long enough to have more side leverage on the tail.
Not going back to a leaf spring though.

[Shadowrider]

Mine did the same thing. I am running tundra lite tail wheel. Tighten the attachment bolt to the tailwheel. I did and it went away.

[JoeRuscito]

My wheel bolt is tight for sure. I took a video incase others have this too. Here’s what mine sounds like. Still need to tighten the T3 bolts to fuselage. It doesn’t seem that the movement is there. It seems like it’s in the T3 joints. So I lubricated them well. https://youtu.be/Rf7gucJUHDM

[airlina]

Wow , sounds just like my back in the mornin, when I get out of bed! Hope you get to the bottom of that . Bruce N199CL

[jrevens]

Joe,

Make sure the bolts are all tightened as they should be. I know that the 2 top ones on the fittings that attach to the fuselage should be torqued tight to specs. Any of the other joints that need to rotate need to be tightened as recommended by ABW. Those will be the ones that are using castle nuts.

[JoeRuscito]

Thanks all. Got it sorted. After Johns comment above I re-read the installation instructions and went about going through the system throughly. I did not catch that the top two bolts were supposed to be re-torqued after install. So I snugged those which took away some of the noise. Still some creaking. Then I checked the wood ribs. Nothing moving. Then I loosened all of the castle nuts and bingo it was gone! So I lubricated them one by one (while loose to get it in the joints) and retightened to the same position they were in from the factory. That did it. The majority of the noise was coming from the pivot bolt that holds the front of the swing arm. I think that joint was dry and the little float there is in that joint caused the noise.

[efwd]

I know, I was grasping. I hope its just torque on the bolts that rectifies it.

[efwd]

That sounds like it could be wood rubbing on fiberglass. I would be looking closely at where your wood peices mate to the vertical stab fiberglass down just above the T3. Just a thought. I have this set up without that sound.

[desertdave]

That sounds like it could be wood rubbing on fiberglass. I would be looking closely at where your wood peices mate to the vertical stab fiberglass down just above the T3. Just a thought. I have this set up without that sound.

^^^^^^ This and this ^^^^^^