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Tailwheel fork wear

RV6_flyer

Well Known Member
Benefactor
It was taking too much rudder pedal movement to make turns in my RV-6. The full swivel locking pin was working correctly but there was lots of movement of the control arm before the wheel would start to turn. There was wear on the vertical shaft that went up through the mount that attached to the tail spring.

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Did a short test flight today with a new FlyBoysAccessories tailwheel fork that I brought home with me from Oshkosh. Ground handling is greatly improved including takeoff roll directional control.

I purchased the tailwheel fork that I was using used. It had wear on it when I installed it. Was a bad decision on my part to save some money and would have been better off buying new. I have always had lots of grease on this joint but starting with a worn part only made steering worse.
 
If you want REAL SMOOOOOOOTH, invest in the ball bearing unit from Darwin (JD Air). It'll accept your new fork assembly and prevent wear like that. And did I mention SMOOOOOOTH?

When I was using the Van's standard brass bushing unit, it would stick, even shortly after cleaning and greasing. Worse with a GIB.

Night and day difference.
 
Gary,

I'm doing a re-grease on my stock tail wheel fork today. On your old part, you'll notice (as you stated) that this part was already used up when you bought it. The groove at the top of the vertical shaft is caused by the very high control arm loads during turning and camming out of the locking pin, and it eventually wears the groove you see there.

Your best defense is regular PM and keeping those parts clean and greased. Mine at about 200 hrs is not showing any wear but reminds me right away when it needs attention.

I looked at the fork from JD and noticed that their setup simply replaces the stock bushing with two radial load bearings (the lower one might have some axial load capacity). They'll hold up for a good while but don't solve the problem of the control arm notching the top of the shaft itself. Once the shaft gets notched, the steering control starts to degrade, and then all you have is a nicely pivoting axle with nasty lockup ...

The stock setup is a good design and works well if you take care of it, but that pretty much applies to the whole plane! I look forward to hearing about how your new wheel is working for you.

Cheers!
 
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